Out of Ireland

Out of Ireland, a remarkable collaboration between Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Wagner and prominent historian Kerby Miller, explores the history of Irish emigration between 1841 and 1926, when 7 million people fled Ireland to come to the United States. The book traces the political, economic, and societal forces at work on these individuals in their homeland and in their adopted country. It also explores the psychology of an immigrant population whose native tongue has no other word for emigration than exile.Out of Ireland is based on a documentary film developed for public television and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through excerpts from personal memoirs and letters and rare archival photographs, the book focuses on eight families. These eight come to represent not only their fellow immigrants, but anyone who has ever felt torn between hopes for the future and longings for the past.Out of Ireland is a powerful story that speaks to the hearts of the 40 million Americans who trace their ancestry back to the Emerald Isle -- and to anyone who has ever dared to pursue a dream.