The Green Space - (The Glucksman Irish Diaspora) by Marion R Casey (Hardcover)

About the Book

"There is more to Irish than St. Patrick's Day and Guinness. The word Irish conjures an array of images, each with a long history. Who defined Irish? In the twentieth century Ireland, the United States, and Irish America were all invested in representation. Exerting or losing control of an ethnic image had ramifications on both sides of the Atlantic"--

Book Synopsis

Honorable Mention, 2025 ACIS Lawrence J. McCaffrey Prize for Books on Irish America

A historical exploration of the Irish image in popular culture

It only took a century or so to segue from phrases like "No Irish Need Apply" to "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" in American popular culture. Indeed, the transformation of the Irish image is a fascinating blend of political, cultural, racial, commercial, and social influences.

The Green Space examines the variety of factors that contributed to remaking the Irish image from downtrodden and despised to universally acclaimed. To understand the forces that molded how people understand "Irish" is to see the matrix--the green space--that facilitated their interaction between the 1890s and 1960s. Marion R. Casey argues that, as "Irish" evolved between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, a visual and rhetorical expanse for representing ethnicity was opened up in the process. The evolution was also transnational; both Ireland and the United States were inextricably linked to how various iterations of "Irish" were deployed over time--whether as a straightforward noun about a specific people with a national identity or a loose, endlessly malleable adjective only tangentially connected to actual ethnic identity.

Featuring a rich assortment of sources and images, The Green Space takes the history of the Irish image in America as a prime example of the ways in which culture and identity can be manufactured, repackaged, and ultimately revolutionized. Understanding the multifaceted influences that shaped perceptions of "Irishness" holds profound relevance for examining similar dynamics within studies of various immigrant and ethnic communities in the US.

Review Quotes

"An illuminating, original contribution to our understanding of ethnic history, popular culture, media history, business history and political history."-- "Robert W. Snyder, Professor emeritus of Journalism and American Studies, Rutgers University"

"Marion Casey's fascinating interrogation of the iterations and re-iterations of Irish imagery that she terms the Green Space demonstrates that what we sometimes take for granted as Irish has a story, a context, and an evolution. This compelling transatlantic study of codes and tropes marks where the Ireland of the imagination originated and is a captivating read whether you are Irish or not."-- "Úna Ní Bhroiméil, author of Building Irish Identity in America 1870-1915"

"Through impressive research, drawing on sources as diverse as congressional debates, St. Patrick's Day party games, movie advertising campaigns, liquor company legal wars over trademarking, and much more, Marion Casey has written a provocative, imaginative and strikingly innovative study of how the image of the Irish was constructed in America over the first half of the twentieth century."-- "Timothy J. Meagher, author of Becoming Irish American: the Making and Remaking of a People"

About the Author

Marion R. Casey is Clinical Professor of Irish Studies and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of History at New York University and co-editor of Making the Irish American History and Heritage of the Irish in the United States.