As part of Documentary on Newstalk producer J.J. O`Shea looks at the ways in which the Irish in America were able to assist the flood of Jewish immigrants escaping the pogroms of Eastern Europe and Russia in the nineteenth century and were in a position to help them overcome problems of prejudice, poverty and outsider status in “The Shamrock and the Star.”

Hear "The Shamrock and the Star" on Newstalk at 7am, Sunday July 24th, repeated Saturday July 30th at 9pm and as a podcast on GoLoud & on all major platforms. 

“The Shamrock and the Star” shows how the Irish were able to open doors and offer guidance to the newly arrived Jews in the realms of the entertainment industry, politics, the press, and education, because they had faced and over-come similar prejudice from a white Anglo Saxon establishment.

In the company of ethno-musicologist and musician Mick Moloney and historians Hasia Diner and Cathal Mansfield, J.J. O`Shea explores this little-known aspect of the Irish emigration story.

“The Shamrock and the Star” is produced and presented by J.J. O`Shea and funded by The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.