Between 1840 and 1870, tens of thousands of Irish immigrants settled in Pennsylvania. The Irish: Two Nations, One Heart presents the stories of where they came from, why they left the “Emerald Isle”, how they got to America, the life they created in the Keystone State after they arrived, and their extraordinary ethnic legacy forged from that which they cherished most—family, faith and freedom. The memory of their time has come to define the lives of many Americans today. The three-episode documentary contains dozens of funny, tragic and deeply intimate stories, visualized by hundreds of archival images selected from Ellis Island Immigration Museum, the Library of Congress and the National Archives, and original cinematography shot in Ireland.

The Irish: Two Nations, One Heart celebrates and preserves Pennsylvania’s Irish heritage through a poignant blend of first-person storytelling, never-before-seen images and insightful humanist commentary, and honors the courageous character our ancestors possessed to create a finer life for us today. The film is another presentation in WVIA Public Media Studio’s original documentary series The Extraordinary Journey, which celebrates and preserves Pennsylvania’s diverse ethnic and cultural heritage.