The Famine Irish in the USA – a Promised Land?

After Ireland, no country was more affected by the Great Famine than the USA. Millions of Irish people emigrated to the United States during and after the Great Famine. This is their story.

Through this podcast you will follow them on voyages across the Atlantic before looking at several Irish communities from the Five Points Slum in New York to the Rocky Mountains.

From persecuted Irish miners in the Pennsylvanian Coalfields to deeply racist Irish prospectors in the Californian Goldrush the Irish story in America is fascinating and complex…

I am very grateful to Martin Nutty, Ryan McCormick, Laura Pasek, Lisa O’Sullivan and Ronan McGreechin for their recordings. Monica Brennan very generously allowed me use her rendition of Thousands Are Sailing.