The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American Life (review)

When I first opened The Irish in New Jersey I was a little put off by the first illustration. Depicting New Jersey's first royal governor, Lord Cornbury, in the transvestite costume which he is reported to have favored, that illustration carries the caption, "a perfect personification of New Jersey's in-betweenness." Where I come from, those are fighting words. Fortunately, the worth of a book is no better judged by its first illustration than by its cover. And Professor Quinn's book is more than worth reading to the end.

This book, telling the story of one of New Jersey's largest ethnic groups, is a gem because with insight and a delightful style, the author, without neglecting either Ireland or New Jersey, transcends the standard regional history genre, and gives the reader a broader and deeper appreciation of the Irish immigrant experience. Quinn dismisses the notion that there is a fixed Irish racial type, or even a common Irish immigrant. Rather, using the stories of Irish immigrants to New Jersey, he provides some marvelous and helpful descriptions of the complexity of "Irishness" on both sides of the Atlantic. Without dismissing other religious traditions, Quinn also treats extensively of the unique bond between Irishness and Catholicism as that consciousness developed in Ireland and as it was experienced in New Jersey. Finally, Quinn describes the symbiotic exchange between Ireland and New Jersey. "Ireland intruded into New Jersey's history, and New Jersey into Ireland's" (p. 7). This thesis, while unique, could also be applied to other parts of America. The author deftly supports his contention that it was the very sense of Irishness in the immigrants that provided them with a deeper and more expansive awareness of being Americans. At the same time, New Jersey was a wonderful arena in which to express the different ways of being Irish, providing a freedom and a perspective to the Irish immigrant that was not readily available in Ireland itself.

The style of the book is one of its endearing features. There are no population charts, or ethnicity comparisons, or biographies of every successful Irish New Jerseyan. Rather, Professor Quinn, with the skill of a master story-teller, weaves together the stories of Irish immigrants to New Jersey, both famous and unknown, so deftly that one hardly notices how much history is being covered and how thoroughly one has been immersed in the topic. Every ethnic group in New Jersey, or in any state, would be well-served by a similar treatment that preserves not only the facts of their immigration, but also the romance of their story.

One of the glories of this book is the more than 200 photographs, reprints, and maps that grace its pages. If I could offer a minor criticism, it is that the work could have used some tighter caption editing. On page 147, Archbishop Thomas Walsh is shown "with the four men he had consecrated as bishops." But there are six men in the picture. Bishop William Griffin was overlooked. A similar omission occurs on page 159. The captions for some other photos are vague in their description. But again, this is a minor criticism against a truly delightful read. The Irish in New Jersey will prove a useful and satisfying work for anyone interested in New Jersey, Irish and Irish-American history and culture, and the immigrant scene in America in general.