Models for Movers: Irish Women’s Emigration To America

Íde B. O’Carroll

Oral historian and writer Dr. Íde O’Carroll has conducted ground-breaking research on the lives of immigrant Irish women who came to the United States in the 1920s, 1950s and 1980s. Born in Ireland, O’Carroll lived in Boston in the 1980s, interviewing many of the women whose lives are chronicled here. She pays generous tribute to her mentors, such as the late Professor Ruth-Ann Harris, while providing a rich account of important figures in Boston’s Irish community like Sister Lena Deevy. First published by Attic Press in 1991, Cork University Press has issued this 25th anniversary edition of the book. A new Foreword by Dr. Breda Gray at University of Limerick, and an Introduction by O’Carroll, places the book in an historical context and underscores its enduring value. Currently a visiting scholar at the Glucksman Ireland House at NYU, O’Carroll divides her time between Amherst, Massachusetts and Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland.
Attic Press / $21 paper / 200 pages