Of Cops and Priests: Uses of Social and Moral Authority in Contemporary Irish-American Literature

This unique book explores the connections between events of Irish history and their effects on the Irish. It defines the Irish-cultural personality, examines Romantic Uncatholic visions of Yeats and Fitzgerald, Realistic Catholic visions of Joyce, Farrell and O'Connor and how they contrast with and parallel each other. Of Cops and Priests is about American Irish-Catholicism: loyality, family, religion, sex, guilt and repentence found in the works of Hogan, Breslin, Dunne, Uhnak, Gordon, O'Connor, Wolfe, Reardon and Daley. It examines the replacement of the collective stereotypes of Irish-American fiction by dynamically evolved figures as discussed by Spencer and illustrated by Hamil, Powers, and Hynes.