ABSTRACT
A singular inspiration for the writin’ Irish—for the authors of nineteenth-century Irish American Catholic literature—was the same prelate from whom American presidents sought advice. John Joseph Hughes made his way in America before, during, and after the Great Irish Famine. He arrived in 1817, toiled as a seminarian till his ordination in 1825, served as a priest in Philadelphia, and became a bishop in 1838. As the nineteenth century progressed, Catholic migration to America mounted. This was due in no small part, of course, to the flight of Famine Irish, most of whom were Catholic. Multiplying the effect of this Irish influx was a simultaneous increase in the number of German Catholics, whose migration to North America increased as the Napoleonic Wars came to an end in 1815. Hugh Quigley’s Cross and Shamrock promotes the dual aims of situating Catholics in the American story and showing Catholics how to live a less materialistic life.
