The Irish American experience has fitted seamlessly into the story of the United States as a “nation of immigrants”. In the Trump era, that narrative has fallen out of favour.
Cross-Atlantic family ties are weakening over time and the old political associations are changing too. So where does that leave our relationship with the 38.5 million Americans who ticked “Irish” in the last US census?
On today’s Inside Politics podcast, Prof Liam Kennedy talks to Hugh Linehan about how Irish American identity has changed over the decades, how traces of it persist through popular culture and the contrast between the liberalism of Joe Biden and the nationalism of Steve Bannon.
They also discuss the “soft power” of the Irish-American relationship, as exemplified by the shamrock ceremony that takes place next week in Washington, and whether it too is on the wane.
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Prof Liam Kennedy is director of the Clinton Institute for American Studies at University College Dublin.
