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The Other Irish: The Scots-Irish Rascals Who Made America
What do Mark Twain, Neil Armstrong, and John McCain have in common? They're all descendants of a merry group of Scots-Irish braggarts that crossed the Atlantic from Ireland in the early 1700s and settled in America's South. Also known as the "Other Irish," this wild bunch of patriotic, rebellious, fervently religious rascals gave us the NRA, at least fourteen presidents, decisive victories in the Revolutionary War, a third of today's US Military, country music, Star Wars, the Munchkins, American-style Democracy, and even the religious right . . . not to mention NASCAR, whose roots go back to Prohibition-era moonshine runners. Yet few Americans are familiar with the Other Irish or their contributions to American culture. Now author and documentary filmmaker Karen McCarthy shines a probing light on this fascinating topic, illuminating the extent to which the Scots-Irish helped weave the fabric of our nation.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2011
About the author
Karen Frances McCarthy
2 books8 followersKaren Frances McCarthy MA CSNU is a published author and public speaker. Formerly a political journalist, she now focuses on spirituality, existential beliefs and the philosophy of religion, including belief systems surrounding death, dying and the afterlife.
She contributes to a variety of media outlets on spirituality, existentialism, healing and bereavement, including Salon, Huffington Post, Beliefnet, and Irish Central. She is an exponent of writing for mindfulness and spiritual transformation, is an advocate for palliative and afterlife education and has a keen interest in metaphysics, physics and consciousness theory.
Formerly, she was an embedded Iraq war correspondent contributing to The Irish Times, Times Union, and The News Tribune. She covered U.S. politics for The Irish Examiner, wrote a daily news report for Al Jazeera. As an author, her book The Other Irish was supported by Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs as a cultural outreach effort in Ireland's cross-border peace process. It received considerable attention from NPR, BBC, the McClatchy newswire, The Huffington Post and many other TV, radio, and print media outlets. For this work, she was named one of the the top Irish female broadcasters who have made an international impact.
In television, she produced two documentaries with Deepak Chopra, The Crystal Cave and Alchemy: The Art of Spiritual Transformation. She also wrote and produced the documentary series, Made in America, about immigrants, focusing on the challenges and triumphs of the human spirit. It received an Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) nomination for best documentary series.
She holds three Certificates of Recognition in mediumship, spiritual healing and public speaking from the Spiritualist National Union governing body of the Arthur Findlay College in London where she trained. She has just completed a memoir Till Death Don't Us Part about her spiritual journey and is working on a new non-fiction book about the nature and representation of the ghost in contemporary literature and media.
She has a private mediumship and healing practice in New York and Dublin.
She contributes to a variety of media outlets on spirituality, existentialism, healing and bereavement, including Salon, Huffington Post, Beliefnet, and Irish Central. She is an exponent of writing for mindfulness and spiritual transformation, is an advocate for palliative and afterlife education and has a keen interest in metaphysics, physics and consciousness theory.
Formerly, she was an embedded Iraq war correspondent contributing to The Irish Times, Times Union, and The News Tribune. She covered U.S. politics for The Irish Examiner, wrote a daily news report for Al Jazeera. As an author, her book The Other Irish was supported by Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs as a cultural outreach effort in Ireland's cross-border peace process. It received considerable attention from NPR, BBC, the McClatchy newswire, The Huffington Post and many other TV, radio, and print media outlets. For this work, she was named one of the the top Irish female broadcasters who have made an international impact.
In television, she produced two documentaries with Deepak Chopra, The Crystal Cave and Alchemy: The Art of Spiritual Transformation. She also wrote and produced the documentary series, Made in America, about immigrants, focusing on the challenges and triumphs of the human spirit. It received an Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) nomination for best documentary series.
She holds three Certificates of Recognition in mediumship, spiritual healing and public speaking from the Spiritualist National Union governing body of the Arthur Findlay College in London where she trained. She has just completed a memoir Till Death Don't Us Part about her spiritual journey and is working on a new non-fiction book about the nature and representation of the ghost in contemporary literature and media.
She has a private mediumship and healing practice in New York and Dublin.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 21, 2012
From the Huffington Post:
Nothing Like Those Kennedys: A Review of The Other Irish by Karen McCarthy
"We're nothing like those Kennedys. They're Catholic!" my petite, schoolmarm grandmother chided through pursed lips. Her almost hateful reply startled me since Kennedy was her maiden name. I never mentioned the matter again, but often wondered why my query upset her so much.
After reading The Other Irish: The Scots-Irish Rascals Who Made America, a wonderfully entertaining and highly informative book of historical nonfiction by journalist Karen McCarthy, I finally understand. My grandmother's anger when asked how we were related to America's royal family is one tiny element in a conflict that's been raging at least since the Roman Empire, perhaps longer.
McCarthy takes the reader on a sweeping journey, which begins in Europe with the origins of the ancient antagonism between the Gaelic tribe Dál Riata and the marauding Picts, continues with the settlement of Scots in Northern Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster and then moves to the Siege of Derry, a showdown in 1688 between the deposed Catholic King James II of England and his usurper, the Protestant King William of Orange. William rescued the Presbyterian inhabitants of the ancient walled city from a grueling siege, and afterwards, Northern Irish Protestants became known as "Billy boys."
Even though she's writing about events that happened 300 years ago, the author's agility as a storyteller makes each moment come alive via concrete descriptions and relatable, human-interest stories. Rare is the writer who can not only recite historical facts, but also make them vibrant and flesh-colored. McCarthy is indeed one such gifted writer.
In America, she explains, the word "Irish" originally referred to the Presbyterian sons and daughters of the Emerald Isle who immigrated beginning in the 1700s. When the Catholic Irish began arriving in the mid 1800s, the Protestants soon took to calling themselves "Scots-Irish" to distinguish themselves from their long-time rivals.
This ethnic group has so greatly shaped American politics, religion and culture that McCarthy says they are "arguably the most patriotic of all Americans." In the subsequent nine of the book's 10 chapters, she details the various ways the United States, particularly the South, reflect the character and customs of these "Other Irish."
Evidence of her finely-honed skills abound on every page. The Other Irish reads like the basis for an exciting PBS or History Channel mini-series, an unexpected pleasure in a 374-page history book. Chapters open and close with an interview of a living American to illustrate one current aspect of the Scots-Irish influence, a device that makes for dynamic and topical narrative. McCarthy is an acclaimed filmmaker and reporter: she was embedded with coalition troops in Iraq for the Irish Times and her four-part documentary, Made in America, was broadcast on her home country's leading network RTE. This background makes her writing feel more like fresh, in-depth magazine journalism than dry textbook script.
In the second chapter, entitled "Three Frontiersmen and Their Guns," McCarthy commences with the modern-day story of hunter, Second Amendment advocate and environmentalist David Crockett, descendant of the legend of the Alamo. "People down here are attached to their guns because they've grown up close to the earth," he says to McCarthy. Using this interview as a springboard, the author makes the case that the Scots-Irish valued individualism, adventure and self-reliance, and were therefore perfectly suited for life in the American wilderness. She illustrates that point with engaging descriptions of Davy ("King of the Wild Frontier") Crockett, U.S. President Andrew ("Old Hickory") Jackson and Texas's first governor Sam ("The Raven") Houston, all Ulstermen by heritage.
Chapter Three, "Them That Believe," begins with a description of Appalachian Pastor Jimmy Morrow, a modern-day snake handler. Of his first time, Morrow tells McCarthy, "I weren't in no Church. I handled my serpents out in the wild. I just prayed and asked the Lord for some snakes." Morrow tells of going into the mountains, finding three copperheads, and taking them to his congregation over the next five years -- and of only getting bitten twice. It's a riveting introduction to a world many readers will have heard of, but never seen. The author then provides context by looking back to Presbyterian zealot William Tennent, who founded a frontier seminary called the Log College in 1727, and how that school was one spark that lit the fire of religious emotionalism in the South, which continued with the firebrand revival meetings of the "Second Great Awakening" in the early 1800s, the participation by William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey trial of 1925 and the rise of the "Moral Majority" in the 1980s. McCarthy argues that traditions of worship such as speaking in tongues, wielding political pulpit power and snake handling are merely offshoots of Scots-Irish expression of faith.
Another area of American life McCarthy believes the Ulster-Scots forged is the military. In "American Soldier," she quotes British Prime Minister Horace Walpole, who said of the American Revolution, "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson, and that's the end of it." She also highlights the key role Andrew Jackson and the diehard Tennessee militia played in the War of 1812, the Northern Ireland roots of Confederate general Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, and calls General George S. Patton "the quintessential Scots-Irish warrior: an all-American hard-ass."
Further chapters revolve around Scots-Irish in politics (Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman had ancestors who sailed from Northern Ireland); country & western music (first called music of the "hillbillies", a term derived from the description of "Billy boys" from the "hills" of Appalachia); NASCAR (which began with moonshiners racing souped-up cars to escape the law); and storytelling (Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Mark Twain, William Faulkner and George Lucas each descend from Scots-Irish lineage.)
McCarthy appears to have exhaustively researched her subject matter, as her work concludes with 32 pages of bibliography and notes. She must have done an incredible amount of primary research throughout the southeastern U.S. in order to fill the book with so many interviews, which include ones with General David Petraeus, racecar legend Junior Johnson and country music scion John Carter Cash.
I heartily enjoyed reading this book, not only because I learned about European and U.S. history, but also because it provides a context in which to place my own family genealogy. After finishing The Other Irish, I researched the history of the Kennedys. Two clans claim the surname, one Hibernian and the other Scottish, with the latter including a branch in Northern Ireland. Heaven help the poor soul, like me as a child with my grandmother, who confuses the two.
Nothing Like Those Kennedys: A Review of The Other Irish by Karen McCarthy
"We're nothing like those Kennedys. They're Catholic!" my petite, schoolmarm grandmother chided through pursed lips. Her almost hateful reply startled me since Kennedy was her maiden name. I never mentioned the matter again, but often wondered why my query upset her so much.
After reading The Other Irish: The Scots-Irish Rascals Who Made America, a wonderfully entertaining and highly informative book of historical nonfiction by journalist Karen McCarthy, I finally understand. My grandmother's anger when asked how we were related to America's royal family is one tiny element in a conflict that's been raging at least since the Roman Empire, perhaps longer.
McCarthy takes the reader on a sweeping journey, which begins in Europe with the origins of the ancient antagonism between the Gaelic tribe Dál Riata and the marauding Picts, continues with the settlement of Scots in Northern Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster and then moves to the Siege of Derry, a showdown in 1688 between the deposed Catholic King James II of England and his usurper, the Protestant King William of Orange. William rescued the Presbyterian inhabitants of the ancient walled city from a grueling siege, and afterwards, Northern Irish Protestants became known as "Billy boys."
Even though she's writing about events that happened 300 years ago, the author's agility as a storyteller makes each moment come alive via concrete descriptions and relatable, human-interest stories. Rare is the writer who can not only recite historical facts, but also make them vibrant and flesh-colored. McCarthy is indeed one such gifted writer.
In America, she explains, the word "Irish" originally referred to the Presbyterian sons and daughters of the Emerald Isle who immigrated beginning in the 1700s. When the Catholic Irish began arriving in the mid 1800s, the Protestants soon took to calling themselves "Scots-Irish" to distinguish themselves from their long-time rivals.
This ethnic group has so greatly shaped American politics, religion and culture that McCarthy says they are "arguably the most patriotic of all Americans." In the subsequent nine of the book's 10 chapters, she details the various ways the United States, particularly the South, reflect the character and customs of these "Other Irish."
Evidence of her finely-honed skills abound on every page. The Other Irish reads like the basis for an exciting PBS or History Channel mini-series, an unexpected pleasure in a 374-page history book. Chapters open and close with an interview of a living American to illustrate one current aspect of the Scots-Irish influence, a device that makes for dynamic and topical narrative. McCarthy is an acclaimed filmmaker and reporter: she was embedded with coalition troops in Iraq for the Irish Times and her four-part documentary, Made in America, was broadcast on her home country's leading network RTE. This background makes her writing feel more like fresh, in-depth magazine journalism than dry textbook script.
In the second chapter, entitled "Three Frontiersmen and Their Guns," McCarthy commences with the modern-day story of hunter, Second Amendment advocate and environmentalist David Crockett, descendant of the legend of the Alamo. "People down here are attached to their guns because they've grown up close to the earth," he says to McCarthy. Using this interview as a springboard, the author makes the case that the Scots-Irish valued individualism, adventure and self-reliance, and were therefore perfectly suited for life in the American wilderness. She illustrates that point with engaging descriptions of Davy ("King of the Wild Frontier") Crockett, U.S. President Andrew ("Old Hickory") Jackson and Texas's first governor Sam ("The Raven") Houston, all Ulstermen by heritage.
Chapter Three, "Them That Believe," begins with a description of Appalachian Pastor Jimmy Morrow, a modern-day snake handler. Of his first time, Morrow tells McCarthy, "I weren't in no Church. I handled my serpents out in the wild. I just prayed and asked the Lord for some snakes." Morrow tells of going into the mountains, finding three copperheads, and taking them to his congregation over the next five years -- and of only getting bitten twice. It's a riveting introduction to a world many readers will have heard of, but never seen. The author then provides context by looking back to Presbyterian zealot William Tennent, who founded a frontier seminary called the Log College in 1727, and how that school was one spark that lit the fire of religious emotionalism in the South, which continued with the firebrand revival meetings of the "Second Great Awakening" in the early 1800s, the participation by William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey trial of 1925 and the rise of the "Moral Majority" in the 1980s. McCarthy argues that traditions of worship such as speaking in tongues, wielding political pulpit power and snake handling are merely offshoots of Scots-Irish expression of faith.
Another area of American life McCarthy believes the Ulster-Scots forged is the military. In "American Soldier," she quotes British Prime Minister Horace Walpole, who said of the American Revolution, "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson, and that's the end of it." She also highlights the key role Andrew Jackson and the diehard Tennessee militia played in the War of 1812, the Northern Ireland roots of Confederate general Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, and calls General George S. Patton "the quintessential Scots-Irish warrior: an all-American hard-ass."
Further chapters revolve around Scots-Irish in politics (Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman had ancestors who sailed from Northern Ireland); country & western music (first called music of the "hillbillies", a term derived from the description of "Billy boys" from the "hills" of Appalachia); NASCAR (which began with moonshiners racing souped-up cars to escape the law); and storytelling (Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Mark Twain, William Faulkner and George Lucas each descend from Scots-Irish lineage.)
McCarthy appears to have exhaustively researched her subject matter, as her work concludes with 32 pages of bibliography and notes. She must have done an incredible amount of primary research throughout the southeastern U.S. in order to fill the book with so many interviews, which include ones with General David Petraeus, racecar legend Junior Johnson and country music scion John Carter Cash.
I heartily enjoyed reading this book, not only because I learned about European and U.S. history, but also because it provides a context in which to place my own family genealogy. After finishing The Other Irish, I researched the history of the Kennedys. Two clans claim the surname, one Hibernian and the other Scottish, with the latter including a branch in Northern Ireland. Heaven help the poor soul, like me as a child with my grandmother, who confuses the two.
September 5, 2015
This is a very peculiar book. It rates more than one star, as the first 140 pages are a reasonably good historical survey of the early Scots-Irish in America. There is very much of a southern focus, however, almost as if there were no Scots-Irish in, say, Pennsylvania!!! The Battle of Alamance gets a nod, but no mention of the Whiskey Rebellion, for example. However, the book really takes an unfortunate turn when Ronald Reagan is taken to task for fooling those southern Scots-Irish with his "talk about states rights and the need to curb the power of the federal government," which was apparently a thinly veiled ploy "to exploit lingering racial tensions." But then, the author points out, Reagan was the wrong kind of Irish, so that apparently explains the mendacity. Then there's a mini-hagiography of Jim Webb. Then there's 30 pages on slavery and an abolitionist (in the south, because apparently there weren't any abolitionists in the north). Then there's 30 pages on country music, then 30 pages on the history of NASCAR and running moonshine. Then there's 30 pages of mini-biographies of people with at least a smattering of Scots-Irish descent, including Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Lyman Frank Baum, William Faulkner, Stephen King, and George Lucas. Finally, there's 30 pages on the early American space program. The book reads like summaries of Wikipedia entries strung together. There are better books on the history of the Scots-Irish.
June 16, 2012
This book was a fantastic read and it is obvious there was a painstaking amount of extensive research done to bring out the full “character” of all the highlighted American Heroes. “The Other Irish” goes beyond the dull, high school textbook, version of history to give the reader a full understanding of these Scot-Irish Americans full, complex personality. For me, George Patton defying his orders to lead a tank platoon into battle screaming at the top of his lungs, while fellow soldiers retreat, or his disappointment upon hearing the war had ended while he was wounded in a hospital – these examples give the most complete understanding of the man as an individual and not just a historical figure. Through the extensive interviews and research put into this book, McCarthy finds the fiercely independent, undyingly loyal, and deeply spiritual nature that is shared among all these Scots-Irish individuals who had some of the greatest influences in shaping the American Nation.
September 26, 2024
The rare book I couldn't finish. Too conservative, too religious, too many leaps of logic, too disorganized, too many errors in the text.
May 22, 2012
I found the book, not only informative, but a joy to read. I was aware of some of the characters and their connection with Ulster and the Scots Irish, but others were a complete revelation. Some of the analogies drawn between Northern Ireland and the American South are eye opening. The book is thoroughly well researched and written in a very lively way, full of characters and quotes that make history come alive. It's unconventional in its style, but that is a plus for me as it makes it original and readable. It is definitely a much needed addition to this under researched and under represented subject.
As for the reviewer above who wrote that most of the sources are from websites, there are close to 300 sources and it looks like more than 250 of them are from highly regarded books. There are few if any websites, and of those that are listed, many are articles from The Washington Post etc. Walter Scott appears in the references for his book on Jonathan Swift. The content is well sourced and referenced, I recommend it to anyone, and I recommend the other reviewer learn to read a bibliography.
As for the reviewer above who wrote that most of the sources are from websites, there are close to 300 sources and it looks like more than 250 of them are from highly regarded books. There are few if any websites, and of those that are listed, many are articles from The Washington Post etc. Walter Scott appears in the references for his book on Jonathan Swift. The content is well sourced and referenced, I recommend it to anyone, and I recommend the other reviewer learn to read a bibliography.
April 14, 2013
I enjoyed every page of this book! For anyone with even a drop of Scots-Irish blood in them, this book is a must read! We share a rich heritage, and it is no exaggeration to say that the Scots-Irish are the "rascals who made America." Everyone from Davy Crockett to Neil Armstrong shares the Scots-Irish heritage, and they helped make America great.
This book is well written, engaging, conversational in its tone, and keeps your attention to the very last page. I was sad when I finished the book, it was that good. I highly recommend it to anyone who just likes a good read, but especially those who are Scots-Irish. It will give you a swell of pride to know the incredibly rich, diverse heritage we share.
This book is well written, engaging, conversational in its tone, and keeps your attention to the very last page. I was sad when I finished the book, it was that good. I highly recommend it to anyone who just likes a good read, but especially those who are Scots-Irish. It will give you a swell of pride to know the incredibly rich, diverse heritage we share.
January 23, 2013
What an exciting read!! I was constantly anticipating the next chapter. Which character would be revealed? What events could transform this country? How did these things come about? I loved how the stories were full of the past and the present. The author did a great job of tying it all together. I had fun reading and learning about the generations of these Scots-Irish. I would recommend it to all.
May 11, 2016
This oddly organized but engaging review of the Scots-Irish Presbyterians that emigrated from the Green island as early as the 1600's, is highly entertaining. Somewhat chronological, it deals about disparate topics as the traveling clergy that raced between backward settlements to try and bring the word of God, to country music, to Nascar and on. A really fun read with moments of hilarity. Terrific.
June 24, 2016
Read this book leisurely over a couple months, I could pick it up and flip to where I left off, and immediately be immersed in American and Irish history and how the two are intertwined. The Irish have their fingers in nearly everything quintessentially American. Highly recommend, entertaining read.
October 8, 2021
This book is ALL over the place. It started out great--I wanted to learn more about the Scots Irish, how they came to be, and why they came to America. But then the book branched out in strange directions. McCarthy jumps from time period to time period, with only a thinly veiled link of a mythic historical person being Scot-Irish. The focus is very much on Scots-Irish who lived in the South (many of them did not!) and the historical leaps made in the narrative were jarring.
Important details of history were glossed over, too. The Scots-Irish were assholes when they pushed Indians off their lands and using words like "Jackson had removed forty-six thousand Indians from their land and opened up twenty-five million acres of land to speculators and settlers" doesn't help our revisionist history. We didn't "remove" them--we stole it and had a jolly time murdering and starving Indians while we did. According to this book, the Indians gladly settled down to start farming, too. What? I can't believe those phrases were used in a book published in 2011, honestly.
Important details of history were glossed over, too. The Scots-Irish were assholes when they pushed Indians off their lands and using words like "Jackson had removed forty-six thousand Indians from their land and opened up twenty-five million acres of land to speculators and settlers" doesn't help our revisionist history. We didn't "remove" them--we stole it and had a jolly time murdering and starving Indians while we did. According to this book, the Indians gladly settled down to start farming, too. What? I can't believe those phrases were used in a book published in 2011, honestly.
August 3, 2023
Until I read this book, I didn't realize how much the descendants of the Scots-Irish had contributed to this country, both positively and negatively. It reveals that the attitudes of self-reliance and aversion to authority have been passed down to the areas where they settled generations ago. Prone to break the law and to defy convention. My ancestors!
January 14, 2020
It definitely has a great deal of history and facts that I didn't know about. I'd say it a good read if you're into learning a bit of historical facts.
November 20, 2015
Love this book so much I reviewed it on Huffington Post:
"We're nothing like those Kennedys. They're Catholic!" my petite, schoolmarm grandmother chided through pursed lips. Her terse reply startled me since Kennedy was her maiden name. I never mentioned the matter again, but often wondered why my query upset her so much.
After reading The Other Irish: The Scots-Irish Rascals Who Made America, a wonderfully entertaining and highly informative book of historical nonfiction by journalist Karen F. McCarthy, I finally understand. My grandmother's anger when asked how we were related to America's royal family is one tiny element in a conflict that's been raging at least since the Roman Empire, perhaps longer.
McCarthy takes the reader on a sweeping journey, which begins in Europe with the origins of the ancient antagonism between the Gaelic tribe Dál Riata and the marauding Picts, continues with the settlement of Scots in Northern Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster and then moves to the Siege of Derry, a showdown in 1688 between the deposed Catholic King James II of England and his usurper, the Protestant King William of Orange. William rescued the Presbyterian inhabitants of the ancient walled city from a grueling siege, and afterwards, Northern Irish Protestants became known as "Billy boys."
Read the rest of the review:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/court-s...
"We're nothing like those Kennedys. They're Catholic!" my petite, schoolmarm grandmother chided through pursed lips. Her terse reply startled me since Kennedy was her maiden name. I never mentioned the matter again, but often wondered why my query upset her so much.
After reading The Other Irish: The Scots-Irish Rascals Who Made America, a wonderfully entertaining and highly informative book of historical nonfiction by journalist Karen F. McCarthy, I finally understand. My grandmother's anger when asked how we were related to America's royal family is one tiny element in a conflict that's been raging at least since the Roman Empire, perhaps longer.
McCarthy takes the reader on a sweeping journey, which begins in Europe with the origins of the ancient antagonism between the Gaelic tribe Dál Riata and the marauding Picts, continues with the settlement of Scots in Northern Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster and then moves to the Siege of Derry, a showdown in 1688 between the deposed Catholic King James II of England and his usurper, the Protestant King William of Orange. William rescued the Presbyterian inhabitants of the ancient walled city from a grueling siege, and afterwards, Northern Irish Protestants became known as "Billy boys."
Read the rest of the review:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/court-s...
December 17, 2016
More a series of short stories rather than a coherent document. I learned a number of interesting things but nothing that really tied it together. A bit overdrawn in many parts on stereotypes and generalizations, then tries to apply those to examples of individuals who completely counteract the stereotype.
I wouldn't recommend against reading this but what I'd really recommend is that the author take on the project of a very serious rewrite and provide a second version with a little more focus on the roots in Northern Ireland and the core groups in the mountains that carried traditions and mores to the current era.
I wouldn't recommend against reading this but what I'd really recommend is that the author take on the project of a very serious rewrite and provide a second version with a little more focus on the roots in Northern Ireland and the core groups in the mountains that carried traditions and mores to the current era.
February 8, 2017
This starts off interesting enough and then turns into a shitfest of right wing, jingoistic, make believe. I hated it.
January 13, 2016
This is a highly informative book, and it looks at various sides of Irish heritage in the United States, from perspectives not often considered. McCarthy, Irish born and now living in America, is a friend and colleague and in person and through this book, I have learned much of Irish America I never knew, much more than the usual narrative and struggle. The book combines history, archival research and engaging writing to inform the reader.
March 28, 2016
There's a lot of great information here, and a lot I skimmed over. An interesting read for US history buffs, especially those with Scots-Irish leanings, it reads more like separate stories meant for a TV series, with some repetition I didn't need and a lot of back and forth between time periods. Still, it was worth the time overall.
June 16, 2016
Really enjoyed this book. It makes the history I learned in school seem dry and dusty. Really entertaining stories about historical characters and told in a really engaging and entertaining way. Doesn't cover all the details, but does focus on the events with Scot-Irish involvement. Definitely recommend it to the Scots-Irish but also to anyone who loves the South in particular.
September 19, 2015
Loved the first quarter of the book that dealt with the history of the Scots Irish before emigrating from Ireland/Scotland. The book then becomes more a series of stories about individuals.
June 12, 2014
there was definitely a political motive to this book. Seemed like the author tried to attribute everything "good" about America to the Scots-Irish.
May 1, 2016
Interesting book, though I could have done without the multiple typos and other proofreading errors. Worth the read.
April 20, 2021
Couldn't get past the rampant Catholic bashing.
August 14, 2016
Short on history - more of a "Who's who" of those with this ancestry.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews