provided the video. i two hours, a panel discussion on washington, d.c. during the civil war area -- era. the lives of african-american in the city and the underground railroad. catherine: it is good to be back in nantucket. i first came here when i was five with my mother and my aunt. they decided i should learn to ride a bike. we crossed the street to young's bike shop and they rented a bike for me. i learned how to ride the bike. i was happy to see that young's bike shop is still in operation. i am not sure i will take a spin on this visit. but, it really is great to be back and see the extent to which nantucket is prosperous.

i do my talk tonight, irish immigration and the creation of a greater ireland, i'm going to focus on three interrelated things. first, i will consider the patents of irish immigration to the united states, the push and full -- pull factors that impelled it and the major focus of that influx that began as a result of the great irish famine and continued steadily until the early 20th century. there will be a boston, massachusetts slant to all aspects of my commentary tonight. secondly, i will describe the reception that irish immigrants received upon their arrival on these shores and how their experiences of immigration and much nativist hostility helped to shape strong bonds and communal solidarity, creating an irish american identity.

this was a consciousness that professed loyalty to the united states as well as a continuing devotion to the motherland. this was sincerely expressed -- so simply -- succintly expressed by boston's second born -- second irish born mayor. " to the irishman, american citizenship is a political marriage. he clings to and loves the land of his adoption with the honor of his race. he also loves the tender parent upon whose bosom he first nestled and add to his feet he learned to pray and who guided his uncertain feet when first his life began." "we are irish-americans, true to the old entry to the new -- and true to the new." the third thing i will address is the way these sentiments of

irish-americans involve search for economic justice and political independence from the 19th century, to very recent decades, right up to the recent belfast good friday agreement of 1998. now, it is important to recognize that the first significant influx of irish immigrants to north america consisted primarily of 200,000 presbyterians. that began in the early 18th century. about 10%, or 20,000, arrived in boston between 1750 and 18 50. internal and external factors explain this. migration.

-- explain this ulster migration. protestant dissenters were people who were not subscribers to the anglican state church. they would have been mostly people with scotch background who would -- had emigrated to northern ireland. they had a two stage immigration, scotland and northern ireland and eventually, to america. these presbyterians were fleeing the effects of poor harvests, droughts, and escalating rents in the second decade of the 18th century. presbyterian clergymen were prominent in leading immigrant group, owing to their own economic situation, as well as their lack of legal standing to officiate at weddings, funerals, or to hold any civil office as a consequence of the test acts of

1704. external forces, or pull factors , kicked in around 1750, when ulster sea captains in the new england area reported that massachusetts officials were willing to provide free land grants to settlers near their borders in hopes of strengthening the defenses against attacks by native americans. by 1720, approximately 2000 ulster immigrants arrived in boston. hundreds more would come over the next two and a half decades. they did not receive a very cordial welcome. the local puritan populace believed all irish were "unclean, unwholesome, and disgusting papists." most of these ulster arrivals

left boston to settle in northern new england where place names like bangor, belfast, and limerick, maine reflect the ulster origins of their founders. one who remained with his congregants in boston was the reverend john moorehead who built a church on long plane which later -- long lane which later was the site where the massachusetts constitutional convention was debated in 1788 which explains that street name change to federal street. i am sure many of you know where federal street is in boston. now, another development that came at this time, in 1737, was

the foundation of the charitable irish society of boston by a group of 26 of these ulster immigrants who wanted to make sure their friends and family who were arriving would be taken care of when they got to boston. they engaged in philanthropic work to help them get settled if they fell on hard times. that society is still in existence and continues to do work to help arriving immigrants ,. here we have an artistic representation of the front just piece of the constitution when the society was incorporated in the early 19th century. now, in the 1730's, small but regular immigration from the

eastern and southern provinces of ireland began. this included middle rank individuals rather than the family oriented exodus from ulster. one of the notable immigrants from this time and this area was patrick tracy, who became a famous sea captain and a very successful privateer captain in the course of his maritime life. he fathered nine children who had the wisdom to marry into wealthy families, the moles -- the low walls -- lowells, the cabinets, and the lease in essex county in boston. --the cabots, and the lees in essex county in boston. it picked up again in 1873 with most going further south to

philadelphia and the carolinas. the napoleonic wars from 1800 to 1850 reduced the incentive for immigration among the agricultural classes of lancaster and monster. -- munster. even though the demand for irish grown grain dropped with the end of the war in 1815 and agricultural wages steadily declined, the spreading cultivation of the potato as the principal food source for the irish country labor postponed massive outflows of immigrants from lancaster and munster until the 1840's. the potato was the principal food source for one third of the irish population, about 3 million people. 10 to 14 pounds of potato per day was -- plus a cup or two of buttermilk supplied all of the nutritional needs for an average

laborer. it was noted by many europeans that irish laboring men were the tallest and the most fit of any of their brothers in europe. however, the precarious nature of the potato monoculture in ireland became apparent when a blight, for which there was no known antidote, struck ireland in september of 1845 and returned again with varying degrees of severity right on through to 1851. these failures produced a demographic calamity of immense scale. reducing the population from 8.5 million to 6.5 million in just one decade. by february of 1847, a panic driven exodus began to the united states and canada.

it consisted mostly of copiers --cottiers and small tenant farmers who had lost everything as a result of these successive crop failures. at least one million -- 1.2 5 million of this population loss came from immigration. the remainder was a result of starvation and diseases like cholera and dysentery, which spread throughout the country because of malnutrition and the crowding of people into the workhouses and a soup kitchen distribution centers as well as at some of the sites where the public works programs were taking place. in this light, you can see the huge increase in the numbers of immigrants coming in to the united states. in the middle of the 1840's and lasting down through the first

part of the 1850's. and then, of course, later, spiking, going up again, but never to the extent of the 1840's and 1850's. there had been a gradual rise of immigration to america from about 2000 year in 1800 to about 50,000 in 1844. on the eve of the famine, boston was receiving about 2000 to 4000 annually. there were about 8000 irish born residents in the city by 1845. this was a male-dominated group. many of them were semiskilled or lower middle class tradespeople, rather than simple laborers.

among those who came pre-famine and became successful were andrew carney, later the founder of carney hospital, one of the first hospitals in boston, and the founding factor of boston college high school, and later, boston college, now, boston college university. also in this group was vernon fitzpatrick, who was the father of the future for chip -- bishop john fitzpatrick, who became an important person in raising leaf funds for ireland in 1847. art in group of pre-famine and grants was patrick don who, the editor -- donna who -- donahue.

you degrees of poverty in ireland with the most severe cases in the western and southern section of the country, the areas that would be very vulnerable to the loss of potatoes. this is where people were most dependent upon it for their food. bishop fitzpatrick, here you see a graph indicating the scale of the loss of the potato.

it never went back to the levels of the pre-famine. the dietary practices of the irish had to change a little bit after this, although, potatoes, as any of you have visited ireland know, are still very popular. now, bishop fitzpatrick, andrew carney, and patrick donahue were prominent in boston efforts. they spearheaded fundraising to help send relief to ireland. american quakers were very prominent in these relief efforts. citizens of nantucket

contributed $2000 to the new england relief committee in early 1847, despite the fact that nantucket had suffered a horrendous loss in a fire six months previously. odd, they still had enough -- but, they still had enough empathy and sympathy to raise that money. over the course of 1847, between the two major fundraising campaigns, the total amount of their food resources was somewhere in the neighborhood of $181,000. multiply that by eight to get the equivalent today.

that is a substantial amount of money at that time. this light shows you, again, how important the food crisis was in arland -- ireland. the exports of grain from ireland come into balance with imports rising so much in 1846, 1847, and 1848. much of this would have been relief food sent, not just from the united states, but from throughout the world. in early 1846, the sending of news about what was happening in arland. -- in ireland this was one of

the british royal male ships that would bring newspapers -- m ail ships that would bring newspapers from england and ireland to boston. it was a result of the hibernia arriving in boston that people began to appreciate the severity in early january of 1847 of what was happening in arland. -- ireland so in that year, the illustrated london news took on the role that 60 minutes and frontline reporters due today. they sent journalists and graphic artists to ireland to investigate the veracity of reports of massive, massive loss-of-life in county cork in the southern half of the country from starvation and diseases. the reporters found the conditions there were worse than they had anticipated.

james manny, the lead graphic artist of the island --iln, and also reporter, over the course of 1847 in the next few years, published in that magazine a number of illustrations that give us a partial insight into the horror that engulfed ireland during these years and fueled the massive immigration from 1846 these images were going to be extremely important in terms of creating the worldwide efforts to send relief to ireland that involved people in india, turkey , the indians in oklahoma who

heard about the starving irish and related their own experiences to that, as well. a very fine book was written in which it traces the worldwide campaign to send relief to ireland in 1847, which was the very first of the many global relief and philanthropic campaigns that have happened in the last couple of centuries. you see here two children scratching in a field, looking for perhaps a few potatoes that weren't diseased or the stuffed -- stubbed heads of cabbages to get something to eat. here is a mother in january of 1847, she is not begging for

money to feed her child, she is begging for money to give her child a proper burial. this is a very powerful image. here we have a picture where there is the beginning of a funeral procession and it is sparsely attended, which is very different from the usual irish rituals of a funeral. they are very important in their life. many of you might have an appreciation of that. you have to have a grand funeral when you are going out and if you don't have it, it is a disappointment. this says something about the terrible devastation to the spirit and the morale of the irish people that so few people would go to these funerals, partly because they didn't have the strength to go.

by this time, many would have pawned their clothing so they would not have felt respectively -- respectably attired to go to a funeral. this is another illustration of dead people being carted off to a common grave. you can see that the three men on the left don't look particularly concerned about the death that surrounds them. you see the horse is even emaciated because with the loss of the potato and the fact that people had to use whatever grain they had to feed themselves as opposed to the horses, the animals suffered greatly during famine, as well. this particular image was published in a new york newspaper in later in february of 1847 and was very important in stimulating a good deal of

interest in the new york community to get involved in relief for ireland. since the illustrated news went globally, it also helped to recruit timothy and support from other -- recruit sympathy and support from other places, london, as well. a good deal of money was sent to ireland with queen victoria contributing i think about $2000 -- or 2000 pounds to that. it wasn't very much, in consideration of her great wealth, and that is why in irish folk history she is known as "the famine queen." some of you may have seen the episode on television recently where it looks like she is very

upset, but that is a bit of an exaggeration. another thing that happened in these years was widespread eviction of the poorest of the tenants, the laborers. the landlords wanted to evict them because they were responsible for paying the poor law rates that would provide space in the workhouses and some food for those who had no other resources. and also the landlords wanted to rationalize the agricultural organization of their estates and make them more profitable. so they engaged in wholesale eviction of the most vulnerable tenants, those who have fallen behind in rent. this was a sketch that was done by james mahoney when he returned to ireland to county

clare in 1849, where the entire village of moline was cleared. they would de-roof the houses so that they could not go back to them and in some cases would pull them down entirely. these evictions were important in terms of keeping that flow of people going to the united states. the actual police records at the time indicate that 250,000 people were permanently evicted from their dwellings between 1849 and 1854, owing to land consolidation schemes. there isn't time for me to comment extensively -- one more of these illustrations. this was 1849 in county clare,

the widow o'donnell -- she was the first person sketched about whom the news published biographical information. she had had a husband and three other children -- three older children died. she lost her baby just after birth. her husband died, and she was still evicted by the landlord. when she was interviewed, she was living on the side of the road with her surviving children. this is the kind of scale of human misery and devastation that was taking place in ireland during these times. as i mentioned, there is no time for me to comment extensively on the role and culpability of the british government for the massive famine mortality. i don't agree with the genocide

interpretations that people like tim pat coogan have put out there. but it is indisputable that anti-irish, anti-catholic bias and prejudice among the british political elite, as well as their commitment to laissez-faire economic and demographic theory, certainly exacerbated the mortality that took place in ireland during these decades. when christine comes, she will give you the full view, i am sure, of the british government's responsibility and culpability. it was inadequate, and it was heartless. little wonder that immigration surged in these years with 1851 being the highest exodus when

200,000 irish entered the american courts -- ports. those who remained profoundly altered the ethnic demography of the city and the region, so that by 1855, irish-born people comprised 27% of the population and 85% of the foreign-born. with the arrival of 37,000 to boston in the summer of 1847, the sympathy extended early in the year with campaigns to raise money for food were soon transformed into overt hostility, because thousands of impoverished, malnourished, and often elderly immigrants crammed

into the tenements and the sellers adjacent to the city wharfs in the north end and the hill area. i have to catch up with the slides here. this fellow who was basically the intellectual architect of the laissez-faire policy of the british government and didn't want any english taxpayer's money spent to relieve the irish , who they thought were lazy and needed to learn a lesson. the next here we see a map that shows the areas of the worst population loss during these years. the darkest colors being the areas of heaviest mortality. and here, i think this is important to see.

you see the changes in the irish population over the decades to the census and the precipitous decline between 1841 and 1851. it kept continuing to decline right down until 1951. being an outlier in relation to european countries that all experienced increases in population over that time. even when it began to increase again and go up to almost 6.5 million in 2012, that was still less than the population in 1845 and 1951. that shows you the continuing

impact of the famine as we move on and irish history. the boston daily transcript warned in june of 1847 what all of this meant for the city of boston and i quote, "the tide of immigration that is increasing daily to a most alarming extent, bringing with it poverty, sickness, and crime, has excited the attention of the whole community and people in all parts of the country at last have become aroused and are turning about to devise and -- devise a check to the people that has reached a height that very vitality of our country has been endangered by it." here we see ads in the newspapers advertising passage to america. you see a typical immigrant in his patched and ragged clothing

checking those out as he considers going to america. and here the scene at the docks in cork where immigrants were leaving from. i think you can make out from the slide that one of the destinations is boston and the other is quebec. if you can see that from the distance. the anxieties about the influx of these huge numbers of immigrants led to stricter entrance requirements and even deportation of some sick and poor famine refugees who were sent back to irish ports and often to liverpool from whence they had come. these fears were also a factor in the political triumph of the

anti-catholic, anti-irish, know-nothing party in massachusetts and wrote the country, particularly in massachusetts state elections in 1853. they captured all but six seats in the massachusetts legislature at that time. despite such hostility, the tide of irish immigration could not be reversed. the famine had turned immigration into a national phenomena that affected every class and region in ireland, so that virtually every family there, as the saying went, one "leg across the atlantic." the famine exodus created a patent of chain migration that lasted into the early 20th century, never as high as in the late 1840's and early 1850's, but spiking when serious conditions happen in ireland

again, in 1860's and at the end of the 1870's. even government officials realized that chain migration was something that was started as a result of the famine. as early as 1849, the immigration commission in -- commissioner in ireland made the following observations. he observed "immigration begets immigration, almost the whole of irish immigration last year, certainly more than three quarters of it, was paid for by the money sent home from america." in 1850, remittances from america to find passes for relatives or to help sustain those who remain back at home amounted to one million pounds annually. again, multiply that by about eight to get the contemporary value. for the rest of the century, the

american letter became an integral part of household budgeting for families throughout ireland. in the latter half of the century, the numbers of irish immigrants in the united states fluctuated in relation to prevailing economic conditions in ireland's and prospects for employment in the rapidly industrializing united states. decisions to immigrate were increasingly based on very careful calculation of the economic benefits rather than the panic-driven exodus of the late 1840's. irish immigrant numbers fell to about 50,000 per year in the early 1860's, then rose again to almost 100,000 in the middle of the last couple of years of the 1860's when there was another minor potato crop failure and a

recession. the return of near famine conditions in the west of ireland in 1879 through 1881 sparked another rise, and that is the other big hump in the graph that you see on the screen. in 1880, approximately 75,000 crossed the atlantic, with 9000 arriving in the port of boston. also by the 1880's, the chain migration factor coupled with cheaper and faster passages and steam powered ships made the journey more palatable to prospective immigrants. instead of the month-long journey that was the usual in the famine era. additionally, the reconfiguration of irish landholding patents after the famine limited land inheritance to one son, so that america provided the best option for non-inheriting young irish men and women with ambitions for steady employment and suitable marriage prospects. economic considerations also meant that now only one daughter

would be given a dowry and her sisters would have to leave and fend for themselves. one significant development at this time in the last quarter of the century was that single women now represented over half of the irish immigrants arriving in the country. the educational curriculum of domestic skills that were taught to these young girls in the national schools prepared them to enter domestic service directly upon their arrival in american cities. in 1850, the boston pilot reported that 2277 irish girls were working as domestics in boston. by 1880, that had grown to 7172. although these positions required long hours and very hard work, he gave the young women -- it gave the young women

the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. these women were the primary funders of chain migration in the american letters sent back to families in ireland. they were also very important supporters of the various political campaigns that i will talk about in a few minutes. meanwhile, irish male immigrants who managed to obtain employment in boston and nearby industrial cities were relegated to low wage, dangerous, unskilled jobs of cleaning stables, hauling cargo, digging ditches for canals that eventually created the back bay of boston. as a result, the average irish male immigrant lived only 14 years after arrival in boston, causing one whig to observe that

he never saw a gray-haired irishman. professor joe lee from nyu university has calculated that between 1847 and 1853, 200,000 immigrants had died within three years of their arrival. that is a very high mortality rate. after 1852, here is bishop fitzpatrick. i have is out of sequence, who helped to raise so much money and that is the cathedral of the holy cross, the first one in boston built in the early 19th century. fitzpatrick was very important in helping famine relief. here you see the areas of boston where the irish settled, down in the wharf areas, here down in the south end.

up here along what would be atlantic avenue. and over here. and they lived in very crowded sellers with sometimes 20 people in one room. -- they lived in very cellars with sometimes 20 people in one room. as a consequence of this, disease spread very quickly. a massive outbreak of cholera happened after this huge influx. this isn't terribly clear, but you see these black marks along here, these all represent the areas where the public health authorities had determined that cholera outbreaks had happened. it corresponds with the previous map, as you can see.

after 1882, the number of irish immigrants was generally well below 50,000 a year, owing to improved economic conditions in ireland brought by british land reforms that allowed irish tenants to buy holdings, coupled with the fact that most who wanted to go had already left. irish nationalists politicians and clergy leaders were ambivalent about encouraging further immigration, because they believed it was robbing the country of their best and brightest, and they wanted those people to be staying in ireland to forward the church's mission and also the political mission of ireland's struggle to obtain self-government. even in boston, some of the leaders of the irish-american community became very vocal in their opposition to government-sponsored immigration and cut down on some

government-assisted plans, british government-assisted plans to help some of the poorest of the tenants in the west of ireland. that's another story. i don't have time to go into that. let's get to the political aspects of this. how did all of this expect -- express itself politically and lead to a greater island? the continual arrival of irish immigrants to the country helped to create living links to the homeland and the fact that most settled in closely knit neighborhoods meant that communal solidarity was very quick to develop. the roman catholic church with it rituals and support programs for the immigrants added further to a sense of cohesion and group identity. technological developments, a faster transatlantic travel, instant telegraph connections and the rise of irish ethnic

newspapers like "the pilot" or "the irish world," which published latest news from ireland, one day, maybe two days after it happened, were very important factors in creating links and identity across the atlantic. most importantly, for at least three decades after 1850, memories of the famine, disease, and exile were memories of those who survived, their parents, grandparents, and there was support for the irish national movements in the late 1860's and early 1870's to the land war of 1879 and 1881. in the 1880's, the home rule campaigns that went down to 1914 and eventually to the irish war of independence 1920 to 1921.

the leaders were conscious of what it would do to the irish politics. a radical editor of "the irish world" taunted the british prime minister, william gladstone, with this observation, "you are now unlike the past, dealing with two irelands, the greater ireland is on the side of the atlantic. this is the base of operations. we in america furnish the sinews of war. we in america render moral aid." meanwhile, prime minister gladstone's colleague proved prophetic when he observed, "in former rebellions, the irish were in ireland we could reach their forces, cut off their reserves and men and money and then to subjugate was comparatively easy. now there is an irish nation in the united states, equally hostile with plenty of money and

absolutely beyond our reach, yet within 10 days of our shores." and here isn't illustration from harper's magazine, which shows -- and here is an illustration from harper's magazine, which shows people in ireland being desperate again in 1879, and this is an american ship coming to render aid at that time. the american invasions conducted by irish veterans of the civil war in 1867 and 1871 were premature and badly organized. the republican ideology in the belief that military force was essential to drive britain from ireland persisted for many decades among a small number of the irish-american population. for instance, jeremiah o'donovan whose father died of exposure, and who saw his mother and

siblings forced into exile in america, was determined to exact revenge on the british and was involved in bombing plots in london in the 1880's. it is significant that at his burial in dublin, this is where patrick pierce made his famous oration in which he said that ireland would not be free until the memory of the dead was respected and honored. this was a kickoff for what would happen a year later in the easter rising of 1916. another person was ending up in the united states doing fundraising for the physical force tradition and was very

instrumental in getting guns and ammunition to the easter rebels in 1916. there was another political tradition among irish americans that proved more lasting, constructive and effective than the force tradition, and that was the tradition of constitutional nationalism as espoused by daniel o'connell in the 1820's through the 1840's in the pre-famine era. it was revived in the 1870's and then in the 1880's. this tradition found irish-american supporters in the late 1870's, partly as a result of the fiascoes in canada and because some were using politics effectively in the british parliament to extract concessions. they were people whose work and

activity was totally at odds with what the american conception of irish were. here we have another contemporary cartoon that kind of suggests that all these immigrants are poor and again are going to threaten the stability of the workforce and country here in the united states. this is a sketch that came from the late 1870's and was published in a new york newspaper, basically saying that ireland was sending all of its poor from the poorhouses over to the united states. the hostility against the immigrants lasted a long time. here is another famous one room that time. irish immigrants would bring rum, romanism, and rebellion.

notice the facial features of this immigrant here. that was very common at the time, apelike features, which is very common in the anti-irish representations. the constitutional methods espoused by the leaders in ireland soon began to eclipse support in the united states and basically remained consistent down to the eve of the first world war. among the boston people who were -- here we have michael davitt, both of whom who came to boston and received great help in their

fundraising and campaign to get people behind a constitutional approach to changes in their capacity with meetings at this hall in boston. parnell spoke there in january of 1880. he was the editor of the boston pilot and his successor, john boiler riley who organized the rescue of athenian president -- prisoners in australia that we covered last year. he is an incredible man. o'reilly. whose memory should be resurrected and spread. other bostonians who help to raise relief money for the land war were hugh o'brien, first

irish born mayor of boston and a very successful one. they led the idea of building a public library in boston. we also have patrick collins who became o'reilly's best friend. he was active in raising money for tenant relief between 1879 and 1880. he later was very important in raising money for the irish parliamentary party in the 18 months he served as president of the american branch of the irish national league. he became the second born irish american in office and died in office in 1906 which opened up the door for james michael

curley to enter city hall. again, this rise of irish politicians was not very popular. here is another cartoon that indicated a lot of local yankee concern about the irish coming into politics and o'reilly at these kind of stereotypes of somebody with the irish flag, the bishop up here was a policeman here somewhere. here of course, the state house. collins and o'reilly started their political activities there.

they decided to give that up and as i said, were very important in sponsoring the constitutional approach. i know time is leading on here. i will skip a little bit of this. everybody is probably getting hungry and were talking about famine tonight. i don't want to cause another one. [laughter] >> for parnell's campaign, o'reilly can -- had a very good tactic and they ask for only five dollars for people to join the irish national league. they got a tremendous amount of money because of that. it was like bernie sanders's idea. get everybody involved and feeling part of the process by taking small prescriptions. the importance of this financial aid was really something that

people in irish america became aware of and new they could have an impact on helping ireland gain itself government. it forced the british to do something. johnny fitzgerald of the boston fire commissioner and irish activist said the following during the campaign:" the ireland in america is the treasury of the entire movement. as of every movement in the direction of national independence, ireland is independent and prosperous. while they need assistance, it would be forthcoming in the irish parliamentary party will never be empty while there are 10,000 irishmen here to send aid over the water." that was december 14, 1885.

as many of you probably know, home rule never materialized even though the third bill passed the house of commons. it was suspended and because of the outbreak of the first world war. it was a major disappointment for those in the constitutional tradition. it created an opening in the fourth tradition to reassert themselves. it is the result of that that the physical force tradition was able to pull off the 1916 easter rising which was not very successful. the summary executions of 18 -- 1916 and brought them back to supporting revolution and violent methods. british attempts to apply conscription to ireland also

attended to alienate irish americans. there were a number of protest rallies in boston where some of the most important political leaders attended. many irish americans also financially supported the revolutionary government by buying bonds for the doyle government which supported their efforts. he escaped from prison at one point, found refuge in the u.s., visited boston on a couple of occasions and actually held a rally at fenway park in which something like 22,000 people showed up to indicate their support for the irish american put -- irish republic approach.

some of you know that fenway park was built by an irishman. if you didn't know, you know now. [laughter] most irish americans were relieved to see the end of this in 1921 and they accepted the treaty of this year despite the continuing partition which kept them within the u.k. irish american involvement in politics diminished in the 1920's. going to disappointment or discuss over the outbreak of civil war -- discussed over the outbreak of civil war. it was a secondary issue at that time. it was only in the 1960's that the petition became a crucial

issue for most irish americans. that was because of the birth of the northern irish civil rights campaign. it was able to disclose the gross public employment in politics that the norse catholic minority had faced. this led to a kind of temporary resurgence. this was expressed in america with support from a group called the northern ireland aid group or nor aid. what would happen in 1971-19 72, a lot of irish americans were very concerned about the grievances of the catholic community were not ready to support ira violence because of

the loss-of-life and the economic devastation that had brought to northern ireland in these years. they began to rethink their views about what the nature and because of that conflict was. it was more complex. one person who helped them, particularly in making that reassessment and showing them that the constitutional tactics should be used was the dairy politician and member of the social democratic party. he provided the economic analysis and framework that enabled negotiations to take place in northern ireland from 1996-1998 that produced the good friday agreement. of course, he received the nobel prize for his efforts, along

with the unionist leader. he was very important in the success of those negotiations. american involvement in these years in relation to northern ireland can be attributed at the political level to the efforts of this man. as early as 1970's, he came to america as often as he could to lobby ted kennedy and other folks to use their influence so that irish americans would not give money to power military groups and would back up the use of dialogue and negotiations as a way forward. as i have indicated, it was this approach that finally brought an end to the devastation in

northern ireland that took the lives of 3000 people and created severe injuries for about 36,000 others. tip o'neill got his other colleagues to help them. senator kennedy, senator moynahan, and the governor of new york. they were known as the four horsemen. they put a lot of pressure on the white house over the years, particularly ronald reagan, to pressure margaret thatcher to give up her very hostile approach to northern ireland. she said they are all rebels and troublemakers. let the police and army deal with it. eventually, she had to change that. they were also successful in getting president carter to promise significant american aid to northern ireland if peace

could be developed. eventually, after the irish anglo agreement, part of o'neill's farewell gift, the fund was established which is been important in providing economic development in northern ireland. it still is part of the federal budget today. what is also important is that it led to other countries contributing to an international fund. there are many resources that have helped with economic development and helping deprived areas of northern ireland. bill clinton's involvement was very important in the 1990's. it began as a elect -- election tactic and strategy. he got emotionally invested in

it within a year or so, and it was eventually his government that allowed gerry adams to come to the u.s. with a visa. he was told that they have got to come to a constitutional process because they won't have anything to do with you. that was an important visit. they were able to bring them to the idea that a cease-fire was necessary. the involvement of the american political establishment in bringing negotiations to northern ireland, leading to the agreement of 1998 is one aspect of foreign policy can be proud of. in addition to that, in

conclusion, it is important to recognize other people who contributed to the peace process in her than ireland. many individuals who took their effort and time and resources and did what they could to support people like john had discussions with people in the ira to tell them hey, you are damaging the country. this is the wrong tactic and got them to think about negotiations. he was very important and some of these efforts. also, you had universities taking important roles in educating students about the nature and causes. also engaged in training irish politicians north and south as to how they should take up negotiations. boston college was a very important leader in that.

those of you in -- nantucket know about the island fund. they had a big annual fundraising here this last week. they have been very important in underpinning peace and development with their work as well. irish american partnership does similar work but on a smaller scale. at present, the peace process is in a frozen state because the administration is in suspension. irish america still has a role to play. investors can still contribute positively by continuing investment and continuing the development of negotiations to get the government in the north back up and running. it is especially important in

the shadow of brexit in looming overhead because that turns out to be a hard exit, that will be very bad for the peace process of northern ireland and destabilize a lot of the progress that has been made. i think i have gone on too long. if cooperation continues, i think the time will come that the vision of a agreed island with catholics and protestants and they can all live in common and engage in mutual respect. i think that will be realized. thank you very much. [applause] >> american history tv. 48 hours every weekend of events that document the american story. >> the c-span city tour travels the country.