MC Library Research Guides: Irish American Heritage: Watch

Irish & Irish American History

The Irish at Gettysburg

America's Irish came to the United States to escape a great famine. In April 1863 they fought to protect their adopted countries, both North and South. From the Army of the Potomac's famous Irish Brigade to Lee's legendary Louisiana tigers, the Irish would add their own special chapter to the saga of the Civil War's greatest battle. This is the story of the Irish a Gettysburg.

The True Story of The Molly Maguires

In Search of History journeys 2,000 years from ancient times to the present, taking a closer look at the events, places, and hidden mysteries that have puzzled and inspired historians and experts across the ages. Episode: The True Story Of The Molly Maguires: In the 1870s, 30 Irish immigrants, suspected of belonging to a secret terrorist group called the Molly Maguires, were executed in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania.

Road to the White House (Part 1)

The Road to the White House tells the story of how Irish immigrants to the United States rose from impoverished, despised, disorganized outsiders to elect John F. Kennedy as the country's first (and so far, only) non-Protestant, non-Anglo Saxon president. The series, filmed in both Ireland and America, follows the rise of Irish-American political machines in cities like New York, Boston, Kansas City and Chicago and features contributions from Pulitzer Prize winning authors such as Robert Caro and Jack Beatty. The three-part series tell the story of six unique and powerful Irish-American politicians whose ancestors all came to America as impoverished Irish immigrants.

Road to the White House (Part 2)

Road to the White House (Part 3)

Five Points

The story of 1950s New York City and its notorious immigrant slum district, The Five Points, is seen through the conflicting perspectives of a native born Protestant reformer and an Irish-Catholic family. Through these personal stories, Five Points chronicles the daily life of the lower Manhattan working-class neighborhood, the labor and culture of Irish immigrants, and their role in the rise of pre-Civil War America's great cities.

The Hunger: The Story of the Irish Famine (Episode 1)

Examine the social, political and economic conditions that allowed the famine to occur, setting a crisis into motion in Ireland and Europe. The British government has initial success in staving off the worst impact of the famine, but a government change under John Russell in 1846 leaves many dealing with the fall out of an economic crash in contrast to lower impact elsewhere in Europe. The death rate rises exponentially as resources run out for the Irish poor.

The Hunger: The Story of the Irish Famine (Episode 2)

The British government decides that all further famine relief for the Irish must be paid for from rates raised on Irish landlords. When landlords either cannot or will not pay, many evict their struggling tenants, forcing millions to either move into already crowded cities or to emigrate. At the famine's conclusion, one million Irish have perished and the remaining working classes attempt to build new lives in America. For those that remain inIreland, a new generation is committed to achieve self-determination and to revive a dying culture.

Irish & Irish American Culture

Citizen Lane

This program is an innovative mix of documentary and drama that delivers a vivid and compelling portrait of Hugh Lane, one of the most fascinating and yet enigmatic figures in modern Irish history. A man of multiple contradictions, by turns infuriatingly parsimonious or extraordinarily generous, a professed nationalist and a knight of the realm; a monumental snob and a fearless campaigner for access to the arts.

Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect

Pritzker Prize winning Irish-American architect Kevin Roche is an enigma. He reached the top of his profession, but had little interest in celebrity and eschews the label “Starchitect”. Roche's architectural philosophy focused on creating “a community for a modern society” and he has been credited with creating green buildings before they became part of the public consciousness. He has won awards for his designs of over 300 major buildings around the world, among them the Pritzker Prize in 1982 - the highest honour given to a living architect.

Absolutely Irish

This musical performance program features the leading performers of Irish traditional music from Ireland and America in an all-star concert at the Irish Arts Center in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. It features performances by Eileen Ivers, Karan Casey, Seamus Egan, Liz Carroll, Mick Moloney, Robbie O’Connell, Susan McKeown, Athena Tergis, Billy McComiskey, Tim Collins, Jerry O’Sullivan, and Joanie Madden, interwoven with behind-the-scenes documentary footage.

Living the Tradition: An Enchanting Journey Into Old Irish Airs

Behind every Irish tune is an ancient tale of love and loss, of history and heroes. Living the Tradition is the journey cello player and composer Ilse de Ziah takes around Ireland in a search for undiscovered secrets of ten Irish airs. Along the way she meets with renowned Irish musicians, scholars and local characters who share the history and stories behind the music with her. Ilse performs these intensely beautiful pieces in the places they originally come from, spanning the length and breadth of Ireland.

Aspects of George Bernard Shaw

The celebrated director-actress Margaret Webster (1905-1972) presents her insights into the great Irish playwright G. B. Shaw (1856-1950). This one-woman show illustrates aspects of the many-sided Shaw: his humor, his irascibility, Shaw the lover and social reformer, and -- through his letters to Sister Lorenzia at the end of his life -- Shaw as religious thinker. Miss Webster presents excerpts from several of his works: Caesar and Cleopatra, Man and Superman, Major Barbara , Pygmalion, Candida and Mrs. Warren's Profession.The program also sets the scene of Shaw's life with photographs of British Victorian theater and fashionable people of the time. Webster was born into the theater as the daughter of two distinquished players: Ben Webster and Dame May Whitty. Her reminiscences and ideas are explored in her book Shakespeare Without Tears. Black and White

Adelante

Adelante showcases an Irish Catholic church on the outskirts of Philadelphia that is attracting the patronage of Mexican immigrants in the area. With a personal glimpse at the lives of the vibrant community members - a remarkable Irish American priest, young Mexican immigrants, and older Irish parishioners - the film shows how churchgoers from various backgrounds have forged meaningful and heartfelt bonds of friendship and understanding. Once moribund, the church has become a place for American parishioners to learn about, accept, and embrace a group of immigrants that breathes new life into the community. The film shares the expectant joy of the newly arrived families as they establish lives in an unfamiliar, often bewildering country that offers opportunities entangled with sometimes painful compromises. At its core, Adelante is a celebration of two groups' growth and an embrace of their evolving community.

The Real History of Secret Societies: Ireland's Secret War for Independence

The Irish Republican Army was a tightly organized secret society battling the greatest power on Earth, the British empire. But they were not the first secret society to practice resistance in Ireland. Professor Spence introduces you to The Whiteboys, the Peep o’Day Boys, the Orange Order, the Sons of the Shamrock, Young Ireland, the Molly Maguires, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and more.

The Great Tours: Ireland and Northern Ireland | Ireland in Film and Sports

Music, pubs, and poetry might be the first aspects of Irish culture that you think about, but films also embody the spirit of Ireland. See how The Quiet Man, Ryan's Daughter, and others led to a star-studded native film industry. Your great tour concludes with a look at Irish sports, and the way Gaelic football, hurling, and golf are important to Irish culture today.

Irish Immigration/Emigration

Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Immigration to America

Out of Ireland is a documentary about Irish emigration to America, from the famine-swept villages of 19th century Ireland to the industrialized cities of 20th century America. It is told through the lives and letters of eight immigrants and features the voices of Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Gabriel Byrne and more.

No Irish Need Apply

Novelist Peter Quinn hosts this documentary on Irish immigration into New York City in the mid-nineteenth century. The video visits the NYC locations described in Quinn's novel, The Banished Children of Eve, combining historical photos from the 1860's with remnants of the buildings in the 1990's. Set against the backdrop of the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863, which gave rise to pent-up forces of economic and racial resentment, the video tells the story of the Irish entry into America. Passages from the novel are read to reinforce the struggle, triumphs and failures of the various fictional and real-life characters who represent the different strata of society in New York of that era. The story of Irish immigration is one of poverty and desperate living conditions, of ethnic and racial rivalries, class antagonisms, as well as a resourceful ability to organize and eventually to re-create themselves as Americans.

Irish & Irish Immigration Fiction

In America

With their two young daughters in tow, Johnny and Sarah emigrate from Ireland to New York City in pursuit of a dream. The family uses ingenuity and sheer strength of will to make the most of their new life. Ultimately it is their kindness to a stranger and that stranger's response in return that builds their new home.

Breakfast on Pluto

Patrick "Kitten" Braden is abandoned as a baby and left on the doorstep of Father Bernard. From a very young age, Patrick realizes he is different from the other boys but steadfastly refuses to change. When he grows up, Patrick decides to go in search of his real mother, who now lives in London. Thus begins a touching and funny journey that will lead him to the most unexpected place of all.

The Brothers McMullen

After their mother leaves to Ireland to meet her true love whom she had waited for 35 years to meet, Jack, Barry and Patrick find their own. Jack, happily married to Molly, is having an affair with Ann. Barry, a screenwriter, does not believe in true love, and does not want to settle. Patrick, who is a faithful Catholic, is engaged to Susan, but is having doubts. Jack, Barry, and Patrick are trying to give advise to each other.

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by Niyati Pandya Last Updated Jun 3, 2025 1859 views this year

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Irish American Heritage: Watch