Irish Questions and Jewish Questions

Aidan Beatty has held fellowships at Concordia University and Trinity College Dublin and now teaches at Wayne State University. His first book, Masculinity and Power in Irish Nationalism, was awarded the American Conference for Irish Studies' Prize for Best Book in History and Social Sciences.Dan O'Brien is currently an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at University College Dublin. He holds a PhD from University College Cork.

"This excellent volume succeeds in correcting long-held views about the unproblematic nature of Irish-Jewish relations. With its focus on attitudes toward and treatments of Jewish migrants and the Jewish minority’s hybrid identity the book’s significance surpasses its subject matters and contributes to current discourses on migration, intolerance toward immigrants, and integration." - Journal of British Studies"Ultimately by embracing the cumulative efforts of historians, literary critics, performance theorists, sociologists and demographers that Irish Questions and Jewish Questions makes its most significant contribution to the development of Irish historiography as it demonstrates the capacity of interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives to deepen our understanding of the complex evolution of Irish identity." - Irish Studies Review"Boldly revisionist—challenging and deconstructing the notion that Ireland was friendly to Jews, the authors offer a more nuanced and complex image of the ambiguous and often unsettling relationship between Irish and Jews." - Eugenio Biagini, coeditor of The Cambridge Social History of Ireland since 1740"The volume showcases what new methodological approaches can do: Hession and Wynn clearly shine, while Oakley Kessler’s essay reiterates the virtues and rewards of deep historical detective work and also shines a light on a key era in Irish economic development, where it intersects with the politics of rescue, prior to the Second World War. Gilman and Watt offer potential new avenues of exploration." - H-Judaic"Beatty’s and O’Brien’s comprehensive collection corrects and amplifies our understanding of the historically significant relationship between the Irish and Jews, one that has been largely governed by the linking analogy of the title, but, as these critics show, with insufficient nuance. These impressive essays represent in divergent ways what Stephen Watt describes in his contribution as the ‘multi-disciplinary bristle of a nascent Irish-Jewish studies.’" - Marilyn Reizbaum Bowdoin College"[An] Illuminating volume of erudite essays." - Times of Israel"This collection is a strong innovation in the field of Irish Jewish Studies which highlights the necessity of interdisciplinary research to approach questions of identity and belonging from all angles." - Canadian Journal of Irish Studies