| Summary: | Novelist Peter Quinn hosts this documentary on Irish immigration into New York City in the mid-nineteenth century. The video visits the NYC locations described in Quinn's novel, The Banished Children of Eve, combining historical photos from the 1860's with remnants of the buildings in the 1990's. Set against the backdrop of the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863, which gave rise to pent-up forces of economic and racial resentment, the video tells the story of the Irish entry into America. Passages from the novel are read to reinforce the struggle, triumphs and failures of the various fictional and real-life characters who represent the different strata of society in New York of that era. The story of Irish immigration is one of poverty and desperate living conditions, of ethnic and racial rivalries, class antagonisms, as well as a resourceful ability to organize and eventually to re-create themselves as Americans.
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