PDF When the Irish Invaded Canada The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland Freedom Christopher Klein 9781984886194 Books

Product details Paperback 640 pages Publisher Random House Large Print; Large Print edition (March 12, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1984886193

When the Irish Invaded Canada The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland Freedom Christopher Klein 9781984886194 Books Reviews

• A long overdue retelling of a forgotten episode in Irish and North American history.
  Kudos to the Author for doing a pretty decent job.
  The only criticism I have is at the beginning of the book. When he’s writing about the famine in Ireland he stated that England “did” feed the Irish. Wow! As an Irishman......reading that line of his - there was a time I would have jumped up off my chair in outrage and cursed him from a height! But, I guess I must be getting old and thus fairly mellow.
  If the “incredibly humane” (I’m being sarcastic!) and poor, poor misunderstood English HAD fed the Irish the food that they were blatantly stealing from them......then so many Irish would not have died such a horrible and slow death! There was enough food in Ireland to feed many a times her population. But, alas...it was taken from those poor starving souls and escorted past them under Armed British military guard and delivered straight to Ireland’s ports, then shipped straight to Britain to feed the British. Anything that was left over was sold on the world markets. The cheap and inedible crap that the British government did feed those poor unfortunates was imported to Ireland and could not be digested it was so awful...and the only way the Irish were allowed any was when they built roads to nowhere. For those poor emaciated people that was nothing short of a death sentence.
  When will writers stop pussyfooting around the English afraid of hurting their feelings. They committed Genocide. They were the perpetrators of something horrible. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first Genocide they committed in Ireland!
  Ok - Rant officially over.
  Despite that annoying statement of his - his writing style has the easy flow of a novel that carries you along as the story unfolds.
  Again, to be fair to the man - He’s done a pretty good job overall.
• When the Irish Invaded Canada The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland's Freedom by Christopher Klein is a history of a little-known war. Klein is a writer specializing in history, travel, and sports. He is a frequent contributor to the Boston Globe and History.com, the website for the History Channel and the author of three other books.
  
  To many people, Ireland is a country whose struggle has been limited to British rule. The Irish, as a people, were involved in many western hemisphere conflicts. Bernardo O'Higgins led the effort for Chilean independence. John Riley and the St. Patrick Brigade fought with the Mexican army in the Mexican-American War while other Irish earlier fought to defend the Alamo. The Irish have a history of fighting for causes they believe in. One cause has always been freedom from British rule.
  
  After the Civil War, Irish men on both sides of the lines joined in a plan to gain Independence from England by seizing Canada.  The soldiers' connection to Ireland was much stronger than the color of the uniform they previously fought in. The circumstances of the times allowed this invasion plan to progress. Many believed that the potato famine was a result of a British plot which added to their determination. Americans were leary of England because of their support of the South in the Civil War. Americans also remembered the British came through Canada and burned Washington DC. Furthermore, the great influx of Irish to America created a powerful voting block influencing politics.
  
  The attack obviously was not successful in freeing Ireland or overtaking Canada, but it did allow for a seemingly impossible event to occur and create new heroes in the Irish Independence movement. Klein writes a smooth flowing and well-documented history of the events leading to the invasion, the invasion, and its aftermath.  Klein's writing style and the obscurity of the event almost seems like alternative history.  It was an almost perfect storm of events and circumstances that created this chapter in history.
• This book is well written and researched. It covers the numerous attempts of a group of Irish immigrants who try and invade Canada in order to take it over and force England to negoiate turning Ireland into a republic. This all takes place shortly after the civil war when groups of Irishmen who fought on both sides of the war join the cause. They were not successful due to the fact that their leadership was overly optomistic and poorly organized. At the start the United States took a passive/supportive interest under President Andrew Johnson, but was more realistic under President Grant. Instead of breaking Canada away from England, they caused the provinces to unite more closely.
  
  I recommend this book to anyone who had an interest in Irish history or an interest in a piece of hidden United States history.
  
  I received a free copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook and Twitter pages.