The Americanisation of Ireland Migration and Settlement, 1841–1925

Irish emigration to America is one of the clichés of modern Irish history; much less familiar is the reverse process. Who were the people who chose to return to Ireland? What motivated them? How did this affect Irish society? While many European countries were somewhat Americanised in this period, the Irish case was unique as so many Irish families had members in America. The most powerful agency for Americanisation, therefore, was not popular culture but circumstantial knowledge and personal contact. David Fitzpatrick demonstrates the often unexpected ways in which the reverse effects of emigration remoulded Irish society, balancing original demographic research with fascinating individual profiles to assemble a vivid picture of a changing Ireland. He explores the transformative impact of reverse migration from America to post-Famine Ireland, and offers penetrating insights into its growing population of American-born residents.

Prologue; Ireland's American question; 1. Beyond emigration; 2. Cosmopolitan Ireland, 1841–1911; 3. America on show, 1901–1911: profile; 4. America on show: people; 5. America on show: special cases; 6. Americans in Leitrim, 1901–1911: profile; 7. Americans in Leitrim: people; 8. Visitors from America, 1914–1925: profile; 9. Visitors from America: motives; 10. Visitors from America: faces; Epilogue; Questions unanswered.

David Fitzpatrick (1948–2019) was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College Dublin where he lectured from 1979 to 2015. He pioneered many fields within modern Irish history, including the analysis of personal testimony to illuminate migration and the Irish diaspora, the Irish experience of revolution and civil war as revealed in local sources, the transformative impact of the First World War, and the underlying affinities between Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities. His understanding of such complexities was enhanced by living in Belfast from 1999 to 2019. His most recent books included Descendancy: Irish Protestant Histories since 1795 (2014) and Ernest Blythe in Ulster: The Making of a Double Agent? (2018).