US Elections: When green was more important than red, white and blue

Their influence has since diminished, but there was a time when the Irish-American vote was a huge factor in US elections, writes Pádraig Hoare

The late US President John F. Kennedy.

Names such as Al Smith, Jimmy Walker, and Samuel Burchard will mean little to all but the keenest observers of US political history.

Yet these names, now faded into public obscurity, have been pivotal in the volatile history of US presidential elections and political earthquakes.