Examines how the Irish American community, the American public, and the American government played a crucial role in the making of a sovereign independent Ireland
On Easter Day 1916, more than a thousand Irishmen stormed Dublin city center, seizing the General Post Office building and reading the Proclamation for an independent Irish Republic. The British declared martial law shortly afterward, and the rebellion was violently quashed by the military. In a ten-day period after the event, fourteen leaders of the uprising were executed by firing squad.
In New York, news of the uprising spread quickly among the substantial Irish American population. Initially the media blamed German interference, but eventually news of British-propagated atrocities came to light, and Irish Americans were quick to respond.
America and the Making of an Independent Ireland centres on the diplomatic relationship between Ireland and the United States at the time of Irish Independence and World War I. Beginning with the Rising of 1916, Francis M. Carroll chronicles how Irish Americans responded to the movement for Irish independence and pressuring the US government to intervene on the side of Ireland. Carroll’s in-depth analysis demonstrates that Irish Americans after World War I raised funds for the Dáil Éireann government and for war relief, while shaping public opinion in favor of an independent nation. The book illustrates how the US government was the first power to extend diplomatic recognition to Ireland and welcome it into the international community.
Overall, Carroll argues that the existence of the state of Ireland is owed to considerable effort and intervention by Irish Americans and the American public at large.

"Published one hundred years after the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, Carroll’s book is an important contribution to the ongoing reappraisal of the Irish-American relationship." - H-Net Reviews

"Carroll’s stimulating, exhaustively researched, and impressive contribution to the study of Irish nationalism through Irish American diplomatic relations looks set to impose itself as the definitive benchmark, one hundred years after the establishment of Dáil Éireann." - American Historical Review

"Professor Carroll has given us a very useful synthesis of his decades of study of America and Ireland in the revolutionary period that will be of interest to students and scholars of Irish America, U.S.-Irish relations and ethnic politics in the United States in the first quarter of the twentieth century." - Irish Historical Studies

"A compendium if not an opus of work on the contribution of the Irish diaspora, though also of US government contributions in particular, to the struggle for Irish statehood." - Diplomacy & Statecraft

"Carroll’s important new publication shows how British politicians have long had to consider the impact of the relationship between America and Ireland in their handling of Irish affairs. His insightful work should appeal to a wide audience with an interest in Irish and American history but also to those keen to gain a nuanced understanding of how the Irish revolution and its aftermath affected Britain’s relationship with the United States." - English Historical Review