“Spiritual heirs of the great Protestants who gave their lives for Ireland”: Expanding Irish American Nationalist Landscapes, 1919–1922

Abstract

Abstract Overshadowed by more numerous Catholic immigrant compatriots, Irish Protestants receive scant attention in histories of post-colonial Irish settlement. This neglected dimension of the ethnic history is addressed here through a nationalist organization that supported Ireland’s independence cause from an explicitly Protestant worldview. Protestant Friends of Ireland (PFI) operations reveal a more diverse and complex ethnic landscape than the historical record suggests. Despite their distancing from cultural roots across the Atlantic, ethnic Irish communities maintained interest in Ireland’s political status. This article argues that the short duration of Protestant Friends campaigns between 1919 and 1922 belies their scale and impact. Ethnic contemporaries witnessed an extensive Protestant nationalist presence in PFI crusading and active recollection of Protestant Irish patriots. PFI connections embraced by Ireland’s polarizing political principal, Éamon de Valera, assume a central role in this account, while the confluence of events in 1921 signaled a transition for America’s Irish.