Raising money was one of the great successes of the Irish government, as the funds provided the sinews of war with which to fight Britain. This book details the history of the financing of the Irish revolution from both domestic and international loans. Divisions in Irish society over the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State led to the outbreak of the Civil War. The Free State's ability to deny the anti-Treaty forces access to the loan funds through a ten-year court battle would prove a powerful weapon in defeating the Republicans.

The Dail government depended on the loans to finance their operations, and the failure of the anti-Treaty forces was due in part to their shortage of funds. International complications arose for the Free State when courts in Dublin and New York disagreed over dispersal of the money. Upon his return to government office, Eamon de Valera appealed to bond holders, particularly those in the United States, to give the loan money to him to found an opposition newspaper. Only when de Valera himself formed a government would all of the bond money be repaid. These events would raise questions of international law, and the results would shape Irish relations with the United States for a decade.

In the fall of 1918, devastating forest fires swept across a major portion of northeastern Minnesota. Drawing on both published survivors' accounts and on trial testimony never publicized, the authors bring to light this saga of destruction, resurrection, and resilience in the face of adversity.

Examines how the Irish American community, the American public, and the American government played a crucial role in the making of a sovereign independent Ireland On Easter Day 1916, more than a thousand Irishmen stormed Dublin city center, seizing the General Post Office building and reading the Proclamation for an independent Irish Republic. The British declared martial law shortly afterward, and the rebellion was violently quashed by the military. In a ten-day period after the event, fourteen leaders of the uprising were executed by firing squad. In New York, news of the uprising spread quickly among the substantial Irish American population. Initially the media blamed German interference, but eventually news of British-propagated atrocities came to light, and Irish Americans were quick to respond. America and the Making of an Independent Ireland centres on the diplomatic relationship between Ireland and the United States at the time of Irish Independence and World War I. Beginning with the Rising of 1916, Francis M. Carroll chronicles how Irish Americans responded to the movement for Irish independence and pressuring the US government to intervene on the side of Ireland. Carroll's in-depth analysis demonstrates that Irish Americans after World War I raised funds for the Dail Eireann government and for war relief, while shaping public opinion in favor of an independent nation. The book illustrates how the US government was the first power to extend diplomatic recognition to Ireland and welcome it into the international community. Overall, Carroll argues that the existence of the state of Ireland is owed to considerable effort and intervention by Irish Americans and the American public at large.

The American Presence in Ulster tells the story of the link between Ulster and the United States and presents the first general history of the U.S. Consulate in Belfast. While many historians have written about the impact of Ulster on the United States, this book also highlights the profound impact the United States has had on Ulster. The history of the Consulate General provides a unifying theme in this story, and the rich resources of the U.S. State Department and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland make possible a unique view of both the culture and commerce of the province and also the growth of the Consular Service. Written in a wonderfully clear and engaging style, this book spans the two hundred years since the opening of the Consulate General in 1796. By the late eighteenth century, almost half a million Ulstermen had migrated to American and strong economic ties had been forged. The linen industry in Ulster obtained most of the flax seed supply from the United States and sold most of its finished cloth to Americans. This was the beginning of a flow across the Atlantic of people and culture, goods and commerce, ideas and good will--a movement that has continued in peace and war, as well as in prosperity and famine, up to the present. By the 1990s President Bill Clinton was fully engaged in working to promote the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. During his presidency, the Consulate General celebrated the bicentennial anniversary of its founding. It was recognized as one of the first opened by the new republic and one of the longest to have remained in continuous service. It was also heralded as one of the largest in the U.S. Foreign Service. These recent events mayhave been among the most dramatic examples of the American presence in Northern Ireland, but as this story shows, they have been preceded by a long and colorful history.