This volume features fifty-nine biographical essays from the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography, detailing the careers of a selection of Irish emigrants to North America in the colonial period. Those chosen are a representative sample of some of the more notable figures. Colonial administrators, soldiers and clergymen predominate. Among clergymen, Presbyterians are the most numerous, but space has also been found for Methodists, Anglicans and Catholics, all of whom made their contribution to shaping the religious culture of the colonies. The selection also includes educators, doctors, writers, artists, printers, merchants and even a (female) pirate to give some sense of the diversity of such emigrants, and theirvarying contributions to the economic and cultural development of the colonies.
