On Every Tide

by Sean Connolly

On Every Tide is an immensely impressive, authoritative history of the Irish diaspora.
ON EVERY TIDE is a wide-ranging and challenging reassessment of the Irish diaspora. Drawing on the latest ground-breaking research, and his own career-long engagement with the complexities of Irish identity, Sean Connolly reveals the forces that compelled millions of Irish men and women to abandon their homeland, and explores their new lives in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.
What emerges is an Irish story, but also a chapter in world history. Irish emigrants fled a society blighted by poverty and lack of opportunity. But they also became part of a massive population movement, driven by the requirements of an ever more interconnected world economy, that transported the adventurous and the desperate to new parts of the globe. What distinguishes the Irish from tens of millions of other European immigrants is the position they established in their new homes. Initially treated as a despised and exploited underclass, they created a commanding position, in politics, in the labour movement, and, by the twentieth century, as cultural icons.

From his starting point in the grim realities of Famine and social crisis, Sean Connolly takes the reader forward into the twentieth century, when Ireland itself has become a receiver rather than an exporter of emigrants, and when a reimagined Irishness has become a commodity to be marketed to a global audience. On Every Tide plays directly into wider, contemporary debates about migration, as well as offering a unique and distinctive view of two hundred years of Irish history.

Genres: History

448 pages, Hardcover

Published June 4, 2020

About the author

Sean Connolly will be familiar to listeners of BBC Radio Five Live and Radio Wales. Among his more than 50 books aimed at children and adults are Wholly Irresponsible Experiments and Witness to History: The Industrial Revolution. He has also written for the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. His three children are either collaborators or guinea pigs, depending on the project.

Reviews

[Darragh Howley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite slow to get through despite being only ~450 pages. All the different names dates etc are hard to keep track of but is a well researched book and gives an great insight into the conditions in Ireland and abroad over a long period, probably stating around 1800 and up to current times.

I think the most important point in this book was made towards the end where it was stated that Parallels between Ireland’s historical migration and the situation seen today in the US and in Europe cannot easily be made. Irish migrants were white, Christian and mostly English speaking which helped them settle better. The countries they went to were also not that well populated so issues such as housing was not as much of an issue as it is today in EU/US and their was big demand for their labour and in some sectors their expertise (farming and construction for example).

Irish migrants also seemed to have a good grasp of how political systems worked resulting in greater representation and support for the Irish community in political institutions and also the church.

Whilst there was huge opportunities for Irish abroad it typically involved a lot of hard work and there wasn’t much support if you failed to make a success of it. They were not guaranteed any level of welfare whereas today Europe especially feels a greater level of responsibility to ensure basic housing education and healthcare needs are met.

[Ann Hriciga · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic is fascinating; the writing is tedious. Lots of statistics given in text when a table or graph would have been a better presentation. So many names of people who got elected without a strong sense of what they did - a data dump.

[Hugh O · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this deeply researched book though, at points, the amount of information shared made it less readable. Some really interesting stories and points though and does well to condense such a broad and expensive history into 350 pages.

[Graydon Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genuinely pretty good, despite being dense and very stats-forward.

[Sophia · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is an excellent option for insomniacs looking for cheaper treatment