Irish on the Inside In Search of the Soul of Irish America

by Hayden, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781859844779
• ISBN10: 1859844774
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-17
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

Tom Hayden first realized he was 'Irish on the inside' when he heard civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland singing 'We Shall Overcome' in 1969. Though his great-grandparents had been forced to emigrate to the US in the 1850s, Hayden's parents erased his Irish heritage in the quest for respectability. In this passionate book he explores the losses wrought by such conformism. Assimilation, he argues, has led to high rates of schizophrenia, depression, alcoholism and domestic violence within the Irish community.Today's Irish-Americans, Hayden contends, need to re-inhabit their history, to recognize that assimilation need not entail submission. By recognizing their links to others now experiencing the prejudice once directed at their ancestors, they can develop a sense of themselves that is both specific and inclusive: 'The survival of a distinct Irish soul is proof enough that Anglo culture will never fully satisfy our needs. We have a unique role in reshaping American society to empathize with the world's poor, for their story is the genuine story of the Irish.'

Author Biography

Tom Hayden has been a leader of anti-war, civil rights, and environmental movements in America since the 1960s. A California State Senator for eighteen years, he was part of the US Commerce Department delegation to Northern Ireland in 1995, and has authored legislation to include the Famine in California's school curriculum

Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements	p. vii
Irish on the Inside
Prologue	p. 3
Che Guevara, C. Wright Mills, and the Problem of Split Identity	p. 22
What is an Irish Soul?	p. 26
Growing Up Unconscious	p. 30
Excavating Identity	p. 37
The Long Day's Journey to Success	p. 42
Suburban Dreams	p. 50
Drinking, Sexuality, and Assimilation	p. 55
Worldliness and Its Skeptics	p. 63
Emmet and Paine: My Irish Radical Past	p. 68
The Forgotten San Patricios	p. 73
The Molly Maguires	p. 75
Gangs are Us	p. 78
An Alternative Assimilation	p. 81
The Sixties Made Me Irish	p. 85
Vietnam and the Irish Americans	p. 88
Going North
Prologue	p. 105
Northern Ireland, September 1976	p. 121
Visiting the Republic, 1976	p. 140
The Eighties: A Political Opening	p. 145
The MacBride Principles	p. 150
Return to the North, 1992	p. 158
A Second Visit with Martin McGuinness	p. 161
A Meeting with Gerry Adams, Belfast	p. 163
Adams the Diplomat	p. 178
The Colonized Economy	p. 181
The Greening of the White House	p. 194
The Handshakes at Stormont, October 13, 1997	p. 204
Good Friday	p. 211
The Parades Crisis	p. 214
The Role of Police in War and Peace: The Patten Commission	p. 238
Heart of the Matter: South Armagh	p. 246
Back to Danny Morrison's	p. 261
Recovering the Irish Soul
Prologue	p. 267
The Republic: Corruption or Reform?	p. 273
Afterword	p. 291
Epilogue to the Paperback Edition: The Way We Were	p. 299
Notes	p. 325
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