Real Irish New York: A Rogue's Gallery of Fenians, Tough Women, Holy Men, Blasphemers, Jesters, and a Gang of Other Colorful Characters

As they entered their 600th year of British occupation, the Irish looked to America.

By the 1840s, America was the oasis that the Irish sought during a decade of both famine and revolution, and New York City was the main destination. The city would never be the same.

Refugees of the famine found leadership in Archbishop “Dagger” John Hughes, who built an Irish-Catholic infrastructure of churches, schools, hospitals, and orphanages that challenged the Protestant power structure of the city....