ABSTRACT
Undoubtedly the profound feature of the twentieth century is the close affinity of language, culture, political traditions and military co-operation of the two principal Atlantic democracies. This fusion enabled the 'Anglo-Saxon' nations to triumph in the world wars while the British capitalist economic system refined under American tutelage saw off its Marxist rival in Eastern Europe during the 1990s. These and other victories allow an Anglo-American alliance to enter the next millennium with an optimism that borders on a triumphalism perhaps not seen since the headiest days of Roman civilization. But, this union of the heart as well as of the mind seemed anything but inevitable in the decades preceding the First World War. Moreover, Isaac Butt's observation in 1866 that ex-patriot Irish Catholics were driven by intense Anglophobia, devoted to the emancipation of their homeland from British rule and prepared to use their money, enthusiasm and votes in America to resist any rapprochement between Great Britain and the United States still retains a residual significance.
