Wherever Green is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora

by TimPatCoogan (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.28

  Far more Irishmen live outside Ireland than within it. This fascinating study, by Ireland's best known and most controversial contemporary historian, reveals why this is, how it has come about and what the realities are today - political, economic, religious and cultural - for the populations of the 'Irish Diaspora' and the countries they now inhabit. Based on first-hand research in America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe (including, of course, the UK), this book reveals the workings of Irish communities throughout the world, some with great political and economic power (such as in the US, where the Irish political tradition has dominated politics from the 19th century Tammany Hall to presidents Kennedy and Clinton), some with enormous moral authority (including Irish religious communities in Africa) and others living in poverty on the fringes of society.

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.28

  'A journey into our own psyche...Tim Pat Coogan has dug, Heaney-like, into the past while opening doors to faraway places.' Frank McCourt Chosen by Jon Snow as his Book of the Year, 2000. 'Tim Pat Coogan is an internationally respected journalist. Since his departure as editor of the Irish Press, he has become better known as a prolific historian who is among the most widely read in this country and abroad. His biographies of Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins have enjoyed wide success, while his work on the IRA and on the Northern 'Troubles' can be found in bookshops all over the world. 'Wherever Green is Worn, in keeping with his other works, is trenchantly written. The author is opinionated and unafraid of polemics. It is at once a maddening and a refreshing read. The reader is unlikely to remain neutral. I certainly wasn't...'[It] is an intellectually ambitious work, the result of great energy, imagination and painstaking detective work. Tim Pat Coogan manages to find 'the story' in about every country he has visited. This volume will stand as a challenging and controversial work on the Irish diaspora. It will also stand as a reproach to professional historians like myself who are quick to criticize and find fault, but slow to do the type of research necessary to write an influential and important book of this kind. It is a big book on a big topic. Don't just read it. Buy it and reread it. Dermot Keogh, The Irish Times The definitive story of the Irish abroad.' Ireland on Sunday 'Amusing, interesting and often absorbing...Peppered with the kind of Irish humour that can make you laugh out loud.' Roy Greenslade, Guardian