The Maine Irish were first introduced in book form by James H. Mundy in his excellent study, "Hard Times, Hard Men: Maine and the Irish," 1830-1860 (Harp Press, 1990). Though well-researched and fun to read, the book's time span was limited to three of the harshest decades experienced by that group. Mundy's volume is now strengthened and, in several cases, challenged by a new multi-authored book from the University of Maine Press entitled, "They Change Their Sky: The Irish in Maine."

The new work is the brain-child of Dr. Michael C. Connolly, an associate professor of history at St. Joseph's College and a recognized authority on the longshore work in his native Portland. After a lively preface by Senator Mitchell, whose labors in Northern Ireland are well-known, Connolly provides a sprightly substantive overview of Irish labor, politics and culture that puts the subsequent essays in helpful context.

The text opens with a chapter by Prof. R. Stuart Wallace of the New Hampshire Technical Institute, who focuses on the arrival in Maine of Protestant Scots-Irish in the early 1700s. This neglected tale has previously been overshadowed by that group's settlement in other parts of the nation. This essay is followed by Dr. Edward T. McCarron's chapter on the arrival of the first Irish-Catholic merchants in post-Revolutionary Lincoln County. Hardly the "huddled masses" of ensuing decades, these were educated, well-connected people such as Matthew Cottrill and James Kavanagh. This group built the oldest standing Catholic Church in New England, built great ships and mansions and engaged in the lucrative Irish-Maine timber trade. Edward Kavanagh, of the second generation, became the state's first Catholic congressman and governor in the 1840s.

All the preceding took place before the Great Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and '50s. Starvation in a land that actually had plenty of food for sale led to immigration to Canada and the United States. Scholar Fidelma McCarron of Drogheda and Portland offers an illuminating essay on the migration of Ireland's Rathlin Islanders to Maine's Washington County. Propelled by economic pressures, though apparently not famine itself, more than 500 people left the little isle between 1835 and 1860. Half settled in Washington County. This is a compelling and surprising case study.

Equally place-specific is Edward McCarron's piece on Bishop Benedict Fenwick's attempt to settle immigrant Irish families in the Aroostook town of Benedicta during the 1830s and '40s. Though not the success envisioned by the bishop, families including the Quealeys, McAvoys and Rushes hung on to enjoy the later potato boom.

Matthew J. Barker, one of Portland's most dogged researchers, looks at the city's 19th-century Irish community. What could have been a dull chronology becomes a rich and vibrant essay. Beginning with Lt. Thaddeus Clark, killed by the Wabanaki in 1690, he uncovers a number of wandering Irish schoolmasters and the like before the establishment of the first Irish Catholic settlers at the dawn of the 19th century. How they flourished and came to establish a bewildering number of religious, social, political, labor, temperance and literary organizations seems nothing short of remarkable.

Margaret Buker, who grew up in Lewiston and is now an ordained Minister in Connecticut, presents a fascinating, well-documented study of her home town in the years 1850 through 1880. It is, in part, the saga of the unskilled Irish workers in competition with blue-collar Yankees.

The American Civil War was in many ways the path of opportunity for the Irish. Widespread participation in the war led to involvement in local affairs and grudging recognition. Attorney and historian Gary Libby carefully chronicles the Irish attempt to conquer Canada through Eastport and Calais in the spring of 1867. Though laughable in retrospect, the colorful invasion helped forge Canadian confederation the next year.

Far more practical were Irish single women who functioned as integral parts of families while building careers of their own. Professors Eileen Egan and Patricia Finn of the University of Southern Maine History Department pioneer this previously overlooked part of the story, bringing into light the lives of Helen C. Donahue, Katharine O'Brien, the Clarity sisters and many other women.

"They Change Their Sky" is a beautifully designed book with well-chosen illustrations, a solid bibliography, index and superb cover by Portland painter Holly Ready. Beyond that, it is a book of large ideas and rich facts.

William David Barry of Portland is a writer and historian.