Hibernian Green on the Silver Screen: The Irish and American Movies

(Hardback)

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This study explores the relationship of an ethnic group of vital importance in America's history--the Irish--and a preeminently American art form and business--the movies. Curran maintains that movies reflected and influenced their viewers' perceptions of the Irish and that both the movies and the Irish who made them facilitated the assimilation of the Irish ethnic group into American society. The initial chapter traces the history of Irish immigration to America, concentrating on the experiences of Irish Catholic immigrants to the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. Irish-American involvement in the movie industry dates from its beginnings in the Nickelodeon Era at the turn of the twentieth century. From that time until their replacement by sound movies around 1930, silent films helped to popularize the Irish ethnic group while simultaneously transmitting assimilationist values to its members and other ethnic minorities. Three chapters are devoted to the 1930-1960 period--Hollywood's heyday when American motion pictures attained technical maturity and enjoyed their greatest popular influence. During this period the Irish made their biggest gains both in the movies and the nation, as screen personae such as the Irish priest, antihero, and Irish All-American entered popular culture. James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, John Ford, Gene Kelly, and Grace Kelly are just a few of the Irish-American movie greats discussed. Irish success in the movies facilitated and mirrored their rise in America and helped to transform them from outsiders to a no-longer readily distinguishable ethnic minority. The culmination of this transformation and integration was the election of the first Irish Catholic President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. A final chapter discusses the post-1960 era. The volume is illustrated with stills from some of America's most popular and memorable movies, including such favorites and prototypically Irish films as Angels with Dirty Faces, Going My Way, The Fighting 69th, The Informer, The Quiet Man, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and On the Waterfront, among others. As well as having great nostalgic appeal for readers interested in the Irish or movies, Hibernian Green on the Silver Screen is an excellent text for courses in Irish Studies and American Ethnic or Film History.

Reviews

Hibernian Green on the Silver Screen explores the relationship of the Irish and Hollywood movies. The author, a professor of History at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York and author of The Birth of the Irish Free State, looks at how the movies shaped the image of this ethnic group. In this book, the twenty-third contribution in Greenwood's "Studies of Popular Culture," Curran interweaves the history of the Irish coming to the United States and their work and image in the movies. Thus we find portions of the 156 page text devoted to John Ford, James Cagney and Grace Kelly. . . . the analysis as it is done is informative and clearly written.-CAST/Communication Booknotes
In Hibernian Green on the Silver Screen, an exceptionally well-written, lively, and informative book, Joseph M. Curran does much to redress the imbalance in scholarly investigation of the Irish-American experience. In a book almost encyclopedic in its range of people and themes, Curran presents a long litany of Irish-Americans who have contributed to motion pictures. ...Not only does Curran give the reader a shot but elegant and encompassing story of the Irish presence and image on film, but he integrates his material with the political, social, economic, and religious passage of Irish-America from working- to middle-class status. His book offers marvelous entertainment combined with a shrewd analysis of the Irish-American experience.-The Irish Literary Supplement
Yes, Irish have made it, in real life and Hollywood reel life. For an upbeat introductory survey of how faithfully Hibernian Green is reproduced on the silver screen, teachers and students can now turn to this little book, its helpful notes, serviceable index, bibliography, and illustrations.-Journal of American History
"Hibernian Green on the Silver Screen explores the relationship of the Irish and Hollywood movies. The author, a professor of History at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York and author of The Birth of the Irish Free State, looks at how the movies shaped the image of this ethnic group. In this book, the twenty-third contribution in Greenwood's "Studies of Popular Culture," Curran interweaves the history of the Irish coming to the United States and their work and image in the movies. Thus we find portions of the 156 page text devoted to John Ford, James Cagney and Grace Kelly. . . . the analysis as it is done is informative and clearly written."-CAST/Communication Booknotes
"Yes, Irish have made it, in real life and Hollywood reel life. For an upbeat introductory survey of how faithfully Hibernian Green is reproduced on the silver screen, teachers and students can now turn to this little book, its helpful notes, serviceable index, bibliography, and illustrations."-Journal of American History
"In Hibernian Green on the Silver Screen, an exceptionally well-written, lively, and informative book, Joseph M. Curran does much to redress the imbalance in scholarly investigation of the Irish-American experience. In a book almost encyclopedic in its range of people and themes, Curran presents a long litany of Irish-Americans who have contributed to motion pictures. ...Not only does Curran give the reader a shot but elegant and encompassing story of the Irish presence and image on film, but he integrates his material with the political, social, economic, and religious passage of Irish-America from working- to middle-class status. His book offers marvelous entertainment combined with a shrewd analysis of the Irish-American experience."-The Irish Literary Supplement

Author Bio

JOSEPH M. CURRAN is a Professor of History at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. He is the author of The Birth of the Irish Free State, 1921-1923, and has published articles in Historian, Irish University Review (Dublin), and America.