Irish America : Coming Into Clover

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For many people in this country, Irish-American culture conjures up thoughts of caucous pubs, Saint Patrick's Day parades, memoirs poeopled with an array of saints and sinners, and such quasi-Celtic extravaganzes as Riverdance. Maureen Dezell provides a welcome corrective to these stereotypes of Irish-American identity.

Deftly interweaving history and reporting, observation and opinion—including voices from cities across America and from Ireland itself—Dezell traces the changing makeup of the Irish population in this country, from the early immigrants to today's affluent, educated Irish Americans. With sensitivity and humor, she pinpoints what unites them: the traditions (if not the practice) of Cahtolicism; a sense of social duty; humor, often self-directed; and the deep-seated, apparently unshakable belief that any achievement is accidental and could easily disappear tomorrow.

In an incisive exploration of the role of the Catholic Church in Irish-American life, Dezell disucsses the opposition to the hierarchy that has eroded church attendance and the rise of a "cultural Catholicism" based more on ethics than on religious identity. She probes into family and community life, including a refreshing look at the influence of resourceful, resilient women on immigrant neighborhoods, the labor movement, education, and the economic success of generations of Irish-American entrepreneurs. Her analysis of the complex psychology of the Irish sheds light on Freud's remark that they are the only ethnic group that doesn't benefit from psychoanalysis; her investigation into alcohol abuse, endemic in Irish America, reveals the historical, sociocultural, and genetic reasons behind it.

From insights into the sometimes contentious relationship between the Irish in Ireland and in America to the impact of the "new Irish" immigrants on American culture, Irish America is an enlightening tribute to a group of Americans long masked in myths and misconceptions.

FROM THE CRITICS

Irish Emigrant

Maureen Dezell has produced a study of Irish America which challenges stereotypes while at the same time explaining how they arose. For those of us on this side of the Atlantic her book goes some way to explaining the Irish American phenomenon, while for Irish Americans themselves this will be a thought-provoking look at their origins. For all readers, however, it will be both entertaining and of immense interest

Sarah Brennan - Bookreporter.com

Fed up with the alcoholic and bafoony image of Irish-Americans being perpetuated by drunken frat-boys swilling green beer and kitsch addicted tourists sporting "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" accoutrements, Dezell made it her personal mission to debunk these stereotypes. A journalist by profession, she incorporates textbook history, personal interviews, and hard-nosed reporting into this entertaining and thoughtful study.

Irish Emigrant

Maureen Dezell has produced a study of Irish America which challenges stereotypes while at the same time explaining how they arose. For those of us on this side of the Atlantic her book goes some way to explaining the Irish American phenomenon, while for Irish Americans themselves this will be a thought-provoking look at their origins. For all readers, however, it will be both entertaining and of immense interest.

Maureen Ellen Daly - Catholic News Service

Dezell seems to have read just about everything about Irish Americans. Her bibliography is a compendious wonder and each chapter is filled with quotes which are carefully credited in the end notes. At the risk of catching that most dreaded of conditions-a swelled head-the reader of this book may come away a little prouder of the Irish in America.

Publishers Weekly

Those who harbor the desire to burn their auntie's lace curtains, secretly loathe Riverdance or relish the newfound clout of all things Irish will appreciate this unflinching look at the 20 million or so Irish Catholics in the U.S. Beginning with the potato famine of the 1840s and exploring the repercussions of the Irish Catholic diaspora in America, Boston Globe staff writer Dezell concludes that Irish Americans flourish on contradictions. She first examines the phenomenon of "Eiresatz: a sentimental slur of imagined memories, fine feeling, and faux Irish talismans and traditions" that includes everything from the stock Irishman of the stage ("Sambo with a shillelagh") and the beer companies' preoccupation with drunken Irishmen to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an all-male society that bans gays and lesbians from the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City. Dezell voices contempt for the Father O'Malleys and Flanagans of Hollywood, admiringly recounts the adventures of the San Patricios--the Irish battalion that deserted the American army during the Mexican War to fight on the side of Mexican Catholics--and examines what she casts as the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. She observes the evolution of the American Irish into "CWASPs"--"Catholic--or Celtic--White Anglo-Saxon Protestants"--and traces Irish feminism from the IRA's women's auxiliary, Cumann na mBam, to Mother Jones, Margaret Sanger and Dorothy Day. Dezell also investigates the prevalence of alcoholism among the Irish, and their often combative relationship with African-Americans. Astutely deconstructing images and experiences of the Irish in this country, Dezell will have readers shaking their heads in dismay one moment and laughing uncontrollably the next. Agent, John Taylor Williams. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. Read all 7 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Maureen Dezell is an unrepentant truth teller. With wit, insight and unsparing intelligence she succeeds in demolishing the convenient time-worn stereotypes-comforting as well as insulting-that surround Irish America. In their place, she gives us a portrait of a people as they really are, with all their strengths, and contradictions, and enduring sense of self. Irish America: Coming Into Clover is a wonderful achievement. — (Peter Quinn, author of Banished Children of Eve)

At last a book that dispels so much of the myth, the fairy tale, the rose-tinted, shamrock-gilded blarney that has come to represent the way Irish-American culture is often seen. Maureen Dezell gives us a vibrant, cogent social history of the Irish in this country, rooting out the cliches and stereotyping that have come to define a people. For that alone, I feel indebted to this marvelous book. — (Dennis Lehane, bestselling author of A Drink Before the War and Prayers for Rain)

With a fabulous blend of eloquence and anecdote, insight and compassion, candor and wit, Maureen Dezell has brilliantly captured the Irish experience in America. This is truly a remarkable book. — (Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and No Ordinary Time)

John F. Timoney, Philadelphia Commissioner of Police, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine. . . a very good, sometimes witty, sometimes sad book about Irish Americans, who they are and how they came to be. . . .Dezell's examination of the 'changing church' and its influence on Irish immigrants . . . is fascinating. . . . But it's the chapter on women, 'Bridget, Open the Door,' that is my favorite. . .

"If you're Irish and you're wondering why you think and say certain things, or why most of your Irish friends have this self-deprecating sense of humor, or better still, why some of your very successful Irish friends seem embarrassed by their success, or act as if it will all end tomorrow, then this book is a great place to start. — John F. Timoney

With this sparkling and shrewd portrait of a culture in transition, Maureen Dezell joins the ranks of the Irish American woman journalists who are as smart as they are charming. — Nuala O'Faolain

"Fed up with the alcoholic and bafoony image of Irish-Americans being perpetuated by drunken frat-boys swilling green beer and kitsch addicted tourists sporting "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" accoutrements, Dezell made it her personal mission to debunk these stereotypes. A journalist by profession, she incorporates textbook history, personal interviews, and hard-nosed reporting into this entertaining and thoughtful study." — Sarah Brennan, Bookreporter.com

AUTHOR DESCRIPTION

Maureen Dezell is a staff writer for the Boston Globe. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

ACCREDITATION