The Irish: Our History is a book for Irish-Americans who have questions about their heritage and how and why they came to America. It begins on continental Europe in the days before the rise of the Roman Empire, and tells how aristocratic Celtic warriors created an empire extending from Ireland to Asia Minor. The reader then is taken to Ireland for the story of the early inhabitants of that island. This is followed by the arrival of the conquering Celts and the emergence of the sophisticated Gaelic Order, in which the Irish lived under their own kings for hundreds of years. St. Patrick's fifth century mission converted the Irish from paganism to Christianity, leading to a Golden Age in which their saints and scholars preserved Western learning in the face of barbarian onslaughts. Irish warriors fought against and eventually defeated Viking marauders, but lost their independence when they were conquered by an invasion force of Anglo-Norman knights. With the English conquest the Irish endured more than 600 years of foreign rule until the Great Famine of 1845-49 killed a million persons, and sent another million fleeing to America and other lands. Here they chose to live in big cities rather than the country, forged political power to advance their causes and became part of our country's growing strength. In 1960, one of their own, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was elected president of the United States.