Young Ireland

"The most comprehensive account of the dispersal of the Young Ireland members away from their homeland . . . No other work synthesizes so effectively the experience and worldview of Young Ireland as well as the members’ legacies." ~Malcolm Campbell, the University of Auckland

"“Young Ireland is a well-researched and timely study of Irish nationalism, politics, and ideas as seen through a trans-national lens. Morash weaves the post-1848 stories of the Young Ireland expatriates into the settler narratives of Canada, the United States, and Australia. In so doing, the book underscores the ironic twist in the careers of many Young Irelanders who had fought against British colonialism in Ireland, but who in exile emerged as leaders and agents of the colonial project in the British Empire, or as advocates of American Manifest Destiny. It is a provocative read indeed." ~Mark G. McGowan, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto

"Will make a significant contribution to scholarship in several distinct areas . . . The importance of the argument is clear, the research in both primary sources and secondary works is comprehensive, and the writing is lively and engaging." ~David Brundage, author of Irish Nationalists in America: The Politics of Exile, 1798–1998

"Hitherto, most studies of Young Ireland have focused on the movement’s Irish activities during the 1840s and its impact on subsequent generations of Irish nationalists. Christopher Morash broadens the lens, and argues that the careers of many Young Ireland leaders had a greater impact in the countries where they wound up rather than in Ireland itself. Their legacy, he shows, was mixed: in the United States, Canada, and Australia they not only played a major part in nation building, but also perpetuated forms of settler colonialism that displaced and dispossessed Indigenous peoples." ~David A. Wilson, University of Toronto

"Morash has produced a wide-ranging and beautifully written book. In it, he recovers the complex intellectual world of Ireland’s ‘1848’ and the lasting imprint Young Ireland left on not only Irish nationalism but also on a ‘globalized liberalism,’ and its many tensions and contradictions, that still define our world today." ~Patrick Griffin, Director, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame