Vaudeville is often viewed as the source of some of the crudest Irish stereotypes - violent, drunken men and ignorant, masculine women - that served to position the Irish immigrant in America as the antithesis of native-born American citizens. However, through the use of previously unexplored primary archive material and by giving particular focus to the role of gender in constructing images of Irish America, Mooney questions this view and argues that the vaudeville stage was an important venue in which an Irish-American identity was constructed, negotiated, and refined, not just by native-born performers but also by Irish-American performers, writers, and audience members.
