Eamonn Wall arrived in the US in the 1980s as part of a wave of young, educated immigrants who became known as the ""New Irish"". In this book he wrestles with his own identity, and comments on the poetry, fiction, essays, and memories of both the New Irish and Americans of Irish heritage.

Eamonn Wall arrived in the United States in the 1980s as part of a wave of young, educated immigrants who became known as the "New Irish". In this book he comments on his own experiences and those of his generation, who identify as much with contemporary immigrant America as they do with the long-settled Irish American community.

Wall's starting point is the now-closed Sin-e Cafe in New York's East Village, which was a hangout in the early 1990s for expatriate Irish musicians, actors, and writers. He comments on the poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs of both the New Irish and Americans of Irish heritage, locating them within a literary and historical context. But this is also a deeply personal book in which Wall wrestles with his own identity as an Irishman living in America, from the streets of Manhattan to the western hills of Nebraska.