Five Books Recently Released by Notre Dame Books - Have a Look!

John Hume in America
From Derry To DC
By Maurice Fitzpatrick


Foreword by Senator George J. Mitchell
In John Hume in America: From Derry to DC, Maurice Fitzpatrick chronicles the rise of Nobel Peace Prize–winner John Hume from the riot-torn streets of Northern Ireland to his work with American presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton, and the United States Congress to leverage U.S. support for peace in Northern Ireland.  
“With this timely look at British, Irish, and American politics—and at John Hume, the man who brought them all together to bring peace to Northern Ireland—Maurice Fitzpatrick proves as talented with a pen as he is with a camera.” —John A. Farrell, author of Richard Nixon: The Life
“A must read for anyone truly committed to the Cause of Peace and Reconciliation among troubled constituencies. John Hume embodied the courage, tenacity, and an awareness of the political realities, in living a lifetime dedicated to the cause of peace.”—Charles F. Dougherty, U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania (1979–1983)
Book Available Here!




The Unstoppable Irish
Songs and Integration of the New York
Irish, 1783–1883  By Dan Milner
The Unstoppable Irish follows the changing fortunes of New York’s Irish Catholics, commencing with the evacuation of British military forces in late 1783 and concluding one 100 years later with the completion of the initial term of the city’s first Catholic mayor. During that century, Hibernians first coalesced and then rose in uneven progression from being a variously dismissed, despised, and feared foreign group ultimately to receive de facto acceptance as constituent members of the city’s population. Dan Milner presents evidence that the Catholic Irish of New York gradually integrated (came into common and equal membership) into the city populace rather than assimilated (adopted the culture of a larger host group). Assimilation had always been an option for Catholics, even in Ireland. In order to fit in, they needed only to adopt mainstream Anglo-Protestant identity. But the same virile strain within the Hibernian psyche that had overwhelmingly rejected the abandonment of Gaelic Catholic being in Ireland continued to hold forth in Manhattan and the community remained largely intact. A novel aspect of Milner’s treatment is his use of song texts in combination with period news reports and existing scholarship to develop a fuller picture of the Catholic Irish struggle. Products of a highly verbal and passionately musical people, Irish folk and popular songs provide special insight into the popularly held attitudes and beliefs of the integration epoch.
“Unstoppable Irish is the only work I am aware of that analyzes lyrics over such a sustained—not to mention crucial—period of Irish American history. The analysis allows us to see the process of Irish Americanization reflected in an evolving cultural arena, and it shows how song lyrics contribute to the development of what Raymond Williams has called the ‘structure of feeling’ of any given epoch. In doing so, Milner not only offers insight into the connection between popular culture and American political development, but also leads the way for other cultural historians of Irish America to follow.” —Peter O’Neill, author of Famine Irish and the American Racial State
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Ireland’s Revolutionary Diplomat
Biography of Leopold Kerney
By Barry Whelan
Leopold Kerney was one of the most influential diplomats of 20th-century Irish history. This book presents the first comprehensive biography of Kerney’s career in its entirety from his recruitment to the diplomatic service to his time in France, Spain, Argentina, and Chile. Whelan’s work provides fascinating new perceptions of Irish diplomatic history at seminal periods of the 20th century, including the War of Independence, the Irish Civil War, the Anglo-Irish Economic War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, from an eyewitness to those events. With over a decade of archival research in repositories in France, Germany, Britain, Spain, and Ireland, as well as through unique and unrestricted access to Kerney’s private papers, Whelan successfully challenges previously published analyses of Kerney’s work and debunks many of the perceived controversies surrounding his career.
“This new study of Leopold Kerney provides a fascinating account of a largely overlooked figure in Irish history. As a biography, it provides a valuable new perspective on Irish, French, and Spanish political culture in the early twentieth century. Barry Whelan’s use of sources is excellent, and he provides an insightful account of the career of an Irish diplomat during a turbulent period in Europe’s history. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this period or in politics and history in general.”
—David Murphy, Maynooth University
Book Available Here!



Paisanos
The Irish and the Liberation of Latin America  By Tim Fanning
In the early nineteenth century, thousands of volunteers left Ireland behind to join the fight for South American independence. Lured by the promise of adventure, fortune, and the opportunity to take a stand against colonialism, they braved the treacherous Atlantic crossing to join the ranks of the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, and became instrumental in helping oust the Spanish from Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Today, the names of streets, towns, schools, and football teams on the continent bear witness to their influence.
“[An] important and, I believe, necessary volume on the role played by Irish men and women in the emergence of the new, modern and independent republics of Latin America. . . .  This fine book is a welcome contribution to the literature on the history of our exiles and their descendants . . [and] an exciting and accessible book that is a pleasure to read.” —from the foreword by Michael D. Higgins, president of Ireland
Book Availavble Here!



The Coming of the Celts, AD 1860
Celtic Nationalism in Ireland and Wales
By Caoimhín De Barra
Who are the Celts, and what does it mean to be Celtic? In this book, Caoimhín De Barra focuses on nationalists in Ireland and Wales between 1860 and 1925, a time period when people in these countries came to identify themselves as Celts. De Barra chooses to examine Ireland and Wales because, of the six so-called Celtic nations, these two were the furthest apart in terms of their linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic differences.
The Coming of the Celts, AD 1860 is divided into three parts. The first concentrates on the emergence of a sense of Celtic identity and the ways in which political and cultural nationalists in both countries borrowed ideas from one another in promoting this sense of identity. The second part follows the efforts to create a more formal relationship between the Celtic countries through the Pan-Celtic movement; the subsequent successes and failures of this movement in Ireland and Wales are compared and contrasted.  Finally, the book discusses the public juxtaposition of Welsh and Irish nationalisms during the Irish Revolution.
De Barra’s is the first book to critique what “Celtic” has meant historically, and it will appeal to the reader who wants to learn more about the modern political and cultural connections between Ireland and Wales, as well as scholars and students in the fields of modern Irish and Welsh history.  It will also be of interest to professional historians working in the field of “Four Nations” history, which places an emphasis on understanding the relationships and connections between the four nations of Britain and Ireland.
“As a way of imagining a collective cultural and political identity, insular Celticism is essentially a phenomenon of the second half of the nineteenth century—the title of Caoimhín De Barra’s The Coming of the Celts, AD 1860 is provocatively witty but accurate. In his finely researched and lucidly written study, De Barra details the rise, ebb, and flow of the idea of a common Celtic identity linking Ireland and Wales.” —The New York Review of Books
Book Available Here!