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Comment: Irish-American Studies
and Undergraduate Pedagogy
MARION R. CASEY
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF Irish America dates back to Thomas
D'Arcy McGee's A History of the Irish Settlers in North America (1851).
McGee concluded his preface by expressing "the hope that the whole
subject may come, ere long, under the hands of a master, who can make
of it a story both Europe and America would love to listen to." One
hundred and fifty years later, Kevin Kenny's The American Irish: A
History is the text of the moment, appropriately opening with a quote
from McGee: "Whether we may wish it or not, one half of Ireland is
here." And thus Irish America, long the poor academic step-child of
Irish Studies, has come of age.
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