ABSTRACT
From the end of World War I in November of 1918 to the negotiation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in early December of 1921, Irish America was obsessed with Ireland. Irish Americans had rallied to Ireland’s cause in the past, most notably during the Land War of the 1880s, but never before did the commitment engage so many Irish Americans, from so many different generations, nor generate such enthusiasm nor prompt such generous contributions. Organizations like the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF) and its rival (and really successor) the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR) boasted hundreds of thousands of members. Irish Americans packed halls small and large, country town and big city, and gave or pledged millions of dollars to the nationalist cause and the new revolutionary Republic of Ireland. The leader of that new republic, Éamon de Valera, on the run from British authorities landed in America in the summer of 1919. Emerging from his stowaway cabin, he toured the United States in triumph, drawing crowds of tens of thousands in what would become the hallowed shrines of sporting America—Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Madison Square Garden—but also drawing thousands more in smaller cities along the way. 1
