On Every Tide

The Making and Remaking of the Irish World

By: Sean Connolly

Narrated by: Patrick Moy

A sweeping history of Irish emigration, arguing that the Irish exodus helped make the modern world

When people think of Irish emigration, they often think of the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused many to flee Ireland for the United States. But the real history of the Irish diaspora is much longer, more complicated, and more global.

In On Every Tide, Sean Connolly tells the epic story of Irish migration, showing how emigrants became a force in world politics and religion. Starting in the eighteenth century, the Irish fled limited opportunity at home and fanned out across America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These emigrants helped settle new frontiers, industrialize the West, and spread Catholicism globally. As the Irish built vibrant communities abroad, they leveraged their newfound power—sometimes becoming oppressors themselves.

Deeply researched and vividly told, On Every Tide is essential reading for understanding how the people of Ireland shaped the world.

Critic reviews

“In a sweeping historical narrative studded with original insights, Sean Connolly shows how the great migration of eight million Irish people prefigured the main patterns of international migration today. Irish migrants all over the world—roughly half of whom were women—took on the work that other people wouldn’t do, served the rich, built roads, canals, railroads, and cities, and endured sustained bigotry for their poverty, their manners, and their religion. They also plundered indigenous land and reaped the benefits of being white, Christian, and English-speaking in the colonized lands where they settled. Elegantly written, compellingly argued, and genuinely global in scope, On Every Tide is a great book by one of Ireland’s foremost historians.”—Kevin Kenny, New York University

“Stylish and lucid, this intrepid and provocative book traces in a manner at once bold and nuanced the movements of Irish migrants across space and time over the past two centuries. Sean Connolly is alert to the complex fate of victims, exploiters, soldiers of fortune, or the merely footloose who used the wide world to explore themselves. In his analysis, imaginative audacity is tempered only by sound scholarly scruple. A work of unprecedented synthesis which is magisterial and informed, yet whose challenge to conventional wisdom will generate animated debate for years to come.”—Declan Kiberd, University of Notre Dame

“Three decades ago, President Mary Robinson lit a symbolic candle in the Irish ‘White House’ to acknowledge the nation beyond, the Irish diaspora. But it is only now that we have the all-encompassing history of that diaspora—across more than three centuries and over four continents. Connolly’s quite remarkable achievement has been to document that history in a single volume, to interrogate all its complexities and contradictions, and to construct a taut narrative that is both intellectually compelling and superbly crafted.”—David Dickson, Trinity College Dublin

“What a fine book! It has all the virtues one wants in a work of synthesis. Sean Connolly has read almost everything in print on the Irish diaspora, and he distills the material in a gentle, generous, and highly readable fashion—and yet with an engaged and edgy quality. Thus, several of the myths about the Irish worldwide—such as that they had an instinctive sympathy with indigenous and racialized groups—are called into question. On Every Tide is the ideal place for anyone interested in the Irish diaspora to begin, and, for those with some previous knowledge, to recalibrate their compass.”—Donald H. Akenson, Queen’s University

Enlightening information of Irish immigration

An essential addition to understanding the Irish diaspora. It soberly peals away the onion like layers of this topic. Giving me a deeper understanding of the past but useful sign post of the future.

Just too much

Nothing kept me wanting to read further. Limited time and would rather read something more engaging.