By the turn of the century, second and third generation Irish-Americans were steadily entering the respectable middle classes. Newly confident and increasingly image-conscious, the American Irish launched a concerted campaign against the "stage Irish" Paddys and Bridgets, boycotting theatres and, in more extreme cases, organizing riots.

So effective was their campaign that film producers and exhibitors began to cut back on the earlier knockabout Paddy and Bridget films. New films emerged that were designed specifically for Irish-American audiences. Many of these films dramatized events of Ireland's past, romanticizing the plight of the peasantry against the English colonizer.

These "heritage" films celebrated the lifestyles of the Irish poor and gave comfort to those who had emigrated by implying that escape to America was the only way to flee poverty and tyranny in Ireland. Thus it was that the American Dream became part of the Irish Dream.

The first instance of the "Irish-American Heritage Film" dates back to 1906, but the genre reached it height in the early- to mid-1910s. The majority of these films are 1 to 2 reels in length. By the mid-teens, however, 3 or more reels were becoming more common.

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Shamus O'Brien (IMP, 1912)

Shamus O'Brien (IMP, 1912)

Brennan of the Moor (Solax, 1913)