Comment: Teaching Irish-American History

JAY P. DOLAN

I BEGAN TEACHING an undergraduate course in Irish-American history in 1987. I had always had an interest in Irish-American history. Research for my first book, The Immigrant Church: New York's Irish and German Catholics, whetted my appetite for the history of the Irish. This interest continued throughout much of my subsequent research and writing. But it was during my visit to Ireland in 1986, when I taught for a semester at University College, Cork on a Fulbright fellowship, that my interest in Irish and Irish-American history intensified. While in Ireland I read a lot in Irish history and did some research in Cork and Dublin related to emigration to the United States. As a result of this work I became more interested in offering a course in Irish-American history at Notre Dame. Prior to 1987 I had taught courses in urban history, American Catholic history and American religious history. It was time for me to recharge my batteries and develop some new courses. Moreover, it seemed like a natural to teach a course in Irish-American history at the home of the Fighting Irish. When I first began to develop the course, I contacted Larry McCaffrey and Dennis Clark for guidance since both of them had been teaching Irish-American history for some time. After reading over their syllabi and stealing some ideas from these giants in the profession, I set out to design my own course.