Among the thousands of political refugees who flooded into the United States during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, none had a greater impact on the early republic than the United Irishmen. They were, according to one Federalist, "the most God-provoking Democrats on this side of Hell." "Every United Irishman," insisted another, "ought to be hunted from the country, as much as a wolf or a tyger." David A. Wilson's lively book is the first to focus specifically on the experiences, attitudes, and ideas of the United Irishmen in the United States.

Wilson argues that America served a powerful symbolic and psychological function for the United Irishmen as a place of wish-fulfillment, where the broken dreams of the failed Irish revolution could be realized. The United Irishmen established themselves on the radical wing of the Republican Party, and contributed to Jefferson's "second American Revolution" of 1800; John Adams counted them among the "foreigners and degraded characters" whom he blamed for his defeat.

After Jefferson's victory, the United Irishmen set out to destroy the Federalists and democratize the Republicans. Some of them believed that their work was preparing the way for the millennium in America. Convinced that the example of America could ultimately inspire the movement for a democratic republic back home, they never lost sight of the struggle for Irish independence. It was the United Irishmen, writes Wilson, who originated the persistent and powerful tradition of Irish-American nationalism.

David A. Wilson is a professor in the Celtic Studies Program and the Department of History at the University of Toronto. He is the author and editor of several books including Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle and United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic.

David A. Wilson's profile page

It is an engagingly told story about the Irish nationalists who came to America after the failure of their cause in Ireland.

Letters in Canada

United Irishmen, United States has much to offer scholars interested in the pre-famine history of Irish America, late eighteenth and early nineteenth century trans-Atlantic radicalism, and the ethnic dimension of urban politics in the early republic. Written in concise, crystalline prose, this modest book contains a wealth of previously untold stories about the flamboyant and fascinating Irish radicals who came to American in the late 1790s and 1800s.... This book makes an important contribution to the literature by eloquently narrating a largely overlooked chapter of Irish-American history.... A rich, compelling analysis of the complicated nature of Irish-American political life in the early republic.

H-Net Reviews

This is an excellent book, important for the specialist and of interest to the general reader... David Wilson has in this well-organized volume made a substantial contribution to transatlantic studies. It is the definitive work on the United Irish in America.

Canadian Journal of History