This consolidated edition brings together all ten Parts of David Dobson's series, Irish Emigrants in North America. A comprehensive index of names has been added to facilitate the reader's search through all ten Parts. While compiling the series, the author consulted reference material located in archives and libraries in the United States, Ireland, Great Britain, Canada, and the West Indies.

Most Irishmen who settled in the Americas in the 17th century arrived as prisoners of war, banished by Oliver Cromwell to islands in the West Indies and other locations from Newfoundland to the Amazon River. In the early 18th century, Presbyterian "Scotch-Irish" began to settle in the North American mainland thirteen colonies. The Irish potato famine of 1846-1851 forced hundreds of thousands of mostly Irish Catholics to seek refuge in North America, as well as in Britain and Australasia. The expansion of transatlantic trade facilitated emigration, as well as Irish soldiers in the British Army who settled permanently throughout the British Empire, especially Canada.