Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America [Hardcover]

Tom Hayden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2001

Hayden proposes that today's Irish-Americans need to re-inhabit their history to develop a specific ethnic identity.

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.'

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hayden, a leading student activist in the 1960s and now a California state senator, writes about finding his Irish roots in a book that will have many Irish-Americans up in arms with its take-no-prisoners, leftist spin on Irish history. But he makes some very good cultural points. He speaks, for instance, of the "colonization of the mind" and how this affected the Irish under British rule and as immigrants in America, which largely started with the potato famine of the 1840s. Hayden's humor is mordant and dry as he takes on such "experts" on the Irish as former senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (who thought the Irish lacked intellectual curiosity), and former governor Pete Wilson of California, who boasted of his Irishness while running anti-immigrant ads. He speaks of growing up in an Irish-Catholic family which could have come out of a Eugene O'Neill drama; his admiration for John and Robert Kennedy, particularly the thoughtful, saturnine Bobby who emerged after the death of JFK. Hayden then goes on to report on everything Irish in America, from the Molly Maguires and the "forgotten" San Patricios, to the politics of the wild Fenian revolutionary, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa. He then gives his spin on the struggle in Northern Ireland and how it was sabotaged for years by such Irish-Catholic luminaries as Tip O'Neill, Ted Kennedy and former House Speaker Tom Foley. Some of his points will outrage the Irish establishment in this country, but Hayden makes a strong case for his leftist interpretation of Irish and Irish-America history..

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

During the 1960s, Hayden was in the forefront of social justice activism, but the conflict in his ancestral homeland was not part of his agenda. Hayden's family had long ago suppressed its Irish identity to merge into Anglo-American society. That changed in 1968 when civil rights marches in Northern Ireland awakened in the young radical an awareness of his ethnic identity, and later friendships with Northern Irish activists Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness revealed the connection of Old World struggles with those in the New. This work is both a memoir and an examination of Irish and Irish American history. Unfortunately, much of Hayden's analysis is overly simplistic, accepting as self-evident claims the text does not otherwise support. For example, several times he asserts without qualification that the Irish Famine was "the greatest upheaval of nineteenth century Europe" conveniently ignoring such disasters as the Napoleonic Wars or the Revolution of 1848. As a personal memoir, however, this is a revealing look at Hayden's youth and his journey of self-discovery. Recommended for larger public libraries. Christopher Brennan, SUNY at Brockport
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Verso; 2nd edition (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859846165
• ISBN-13: 978-1859846162
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,749,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hayden on Ireland, February 15, 2002

By 

Patrick O'Leary (Long Beach, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America (Hardcover)

This is a particularly good time to read Tom Hayden's Irish on the Inside, due to the gathering conflict between America's role in the war against terrorism and the Irish perception of that role. The book deals with the exodus of Irish people from their homeland following the Famine in the mid-19th century, and the efforts of the newly arrived immigrants to adjust to American cultural attitudes which were frequently anti-Irish. The resulting desire to become immersed in the anglo protestant population led to increasing political conservatism and greater distance from the more radical viewpoints common among the native Irish. Hayden believes that there is a suppressed liberalism among Americans of Irish descent which should emerge at this point to form a bond with oppressed and disadvantaged people throughout the world, but especially in Ulster.

The first part of the book traces Hayden's family's journey from Ireland to Michigan, where he was raised in a parochial school surrounding prior to graduating from the University of Michigan. The author attributes his conversion to radical dissent during the `60's to that vein of revolutionary thought which characterized the Irish struggle against the British for centuries, culminating in the uprising of 1916 and the subsequent Irish Civil War. The second part describes the time of the troubles in Ulster and the fate of those who participated in the political and paramilitary efforts to free the northern counties. The history outlined here is factual and will explain much in terms of not only the violence of the Bloody Sunday era, but the sacrifice on both sides which led ultimately to the Good Friday agreement.

Finally Hayden looks to the future and discusses the question of retention of native identities in the face of onrushing globalism. Are populations like that of Ireland, small and insular, going to be absorbed in the whole as Europe eliminates borders and moves to a common currency? He argues convincingly for renewed efforts to preserve traditions and languages while working to make the international community a place where justice and understanding prevail. Key to that aim will be the resolution of human rights issues in the world at large. Hayden suggests that a vital first step in that process would be an admission by the United States and Britain that arms are not the solution to every problem, and that it is long past time to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Politics of Northern Ireland Made Understandable, June 17, 2002

By 

John Alexander (Lake Elsinore, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America (Hardcover)

I read Hayden's book as I travelled through the northwest of Ireland, in the Republic and in Northern Ireland, and found great insight within. Hayden takes a tremendously complex political and social quagmire and illuminates without oversimplifying. The people who hate this book are likely people who simply dislike everything about the social movements of the 1960s in which Hayden was so deeply immersed. But for those who still believe in fighting for what is right, and care about Ireland, Irish On The Inside will be a refreshing read that will have an impact.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great work of nonfiction, December 24, 2002

By 

"mathwhiz332" (Dewitt, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America (Hardcover)

I just finished reading Dan Sheehan's novel Irish American Hero. I wanted to learn more about Northern Ireland and picked up a copy of Irish On the Inside. It is a great book and I'd suggest that people pair up the two books to get a real feel for what has been going on in Northern Ireland!