Out of Ireland.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

Shanachie Entertainment Corp. 111 minutes/$19.95

With the debate over restricting immigration raging through Congress, the statehouses, and the media, examining the history of Irish emigration to America is an instructive, as well as moving, experience. The numbers alone are staggering--7,000,000 emigrants, many fleeing British oppression and famine, only 10% of whom ever returned to Ireland to live.

Told through archival photos, early motion picture documentaries and home movies, and letters home (read by a number of Irish actors, including Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Brenda Fricker, and Gabriel Byrne), this is a story of triumph tempered by the sadness of a diaspora. Arriving on these shores largely unwelcomed, at one point almost universally despised and labeled drunkards and loafers, and often discriminated against--witness signs proclaiming "No Irish Need Apply" at job sites--these immigrants battled upward through American society, soon gaining prominence in politics, police and fire...