Foreword 11 I. Family and Memory Looking for Jimmy 19 In Search of the Banished Children 43 The Skillins 57 The Perils of Pat 67 Stones of Memory 74 II. Politics and Place Plunkitt of Tammany Hall 87 Local Politics, Irish-American Style 101 Life of the Party 112 Civil Service 122 The Bronx is Burning 127 Cast a Cold Eye: William Kennedy's Albany 138 III. Faith and Imagination Confessions of a Bronx Irish-Catholic 155 Sic Transit 164 The Catholic Imagination 172 Holy Orders 188 City of God, City of Man 193 IV. Silence and History The Triumph of Bridget Such-a-One 211 An Interpretation of Silences 231 Closets Full of Bones 246 Lost and Found 257 A Famine Remembrance 267 Conclusion Irish America at the Millennium: How the Irish Stayed Irish 273.