Irish American history

Bridget the Grocer and the First American Kennedys

by Neal Thompson

The history of the Irish immigrant Kennedys has long focused on its prominent men. A new book looks to JFK's grandmother Bridget Murphy Kennedy as the foundation of the family and a neglected figure for understanding immigration, urban life, and the changing of American politics.

Visit the Library of Congress's Irish-American Resources

The Library of Congress has a dedicated page for documents related to Irish and Irish American history.   

Will Biden Shake Up a Century of US-Ireland Relations?

by Mark Holan

As the second Irish-American Catholic president, Joe Biden may be expected to sprinkle his speeches with lines from Seamus Heaney, but he's likely to tread a moderate path as issues like Brexit test the Irish-American relationship. 

Plus ça change...? Alienation and Violence from Both Sides of Labor's Rise and Fall

by James Ottavio Castagnera

Violence in the Pennsylvania coal fields in the 1870s may or may not have been the work of an Irish secret society, but showed the anger and frustration that fueled the rise of the American labor movement. What will become of social anger today when that movement is moribund?