Sweet Liberty: Travels in Irish America

by JosephO'Connor (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1996

  $3.28

  In this tour across America, the author discovers how Irish the seven Dublins within seven different states are. The book also investigates how much Irish music, from its traditional ballads and folk songs to the band U2, has influenced American popular culture. The tour begins in Boston which is the city the Irish have most profoundly made their own. O'Connor's first stop, Dublin, New Hampshire is a forgettable town. His father, Sean meets up with him in New York and escorts him to Dublin, Pennsylvania and Dublin, Maryland. The journey continues west to Dublin, Indiana, 100 miles away from Indiana itself. He makes a detour to Presley's Graceland mansion to discover how Irish Elvis was and how successful John F. Kennedy was, and then continues via Las Vegas to San Francisco and Dublin, San Francisco.

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.28

  Joseph O'Connor's love affair with all things American led to an extraordinary tour of the United States to visit the nine different towns called Dublin, as well as some of the great cities and tiny hamlets in between. Along the way he wittily deconstructs the legends of a whole pantheon of Irish American heroes, from John F. Kennedy to Billy the Kid, and takes a quick detour to finally answer that most important question: was Elvis really Irish? The result is a hilarious, poignant and unforgettable book that celebrates the breathtaking diversity of the Irish influence on America and actually manages to find a town called Dublin, somewhere on the planet, that doesn't have one single pub within its limits...