The irony of struggle
What is it exactly that makes these stories so appealing? It's the fact that they're underdog stories, stories about the team that few people root for. For instance, Frederick Douglass's fearless service to equality and racial reconciliation is so resilient that Ireland loves him, even though they seem disconnected to us somehow. They loved him for his bravery in the face of struggle, because Irish people have had to struggle and fight for their rights, basically for their entire history, to be frank.
The irony of generations
Look at the Duggan family. Lily leaves Ireland as a stowaway to make a better life for herself in New York. Emily is a journalist who reports on the first transatlantic flight (notice the extra irony since flight wasn't an option for Lily), and finally, Lottie marries a Belfast man. See how dynamic they are as a family? Ironically, their different approaches to life make their family more secure. For Lily, life is not limited to herself, but rather, she has her daughter and granddaughter who can live in her place as citizens of a future, better Ireland. The irony is that in the end, things turn out okay, because Lily has her family.
The irony of opportunity
Lily's time is not easy. She has a difficult life in a highly divided, oppressed community, and then ultimately, has to abandon what little there is left for her in Ireland to move on. However when she gets there, she'll be another Irish immigrant in a city that hated Irish immigrants, in a country where slavery is still legal. It seems with every opportunity, there is a cost.
The irony of flight
Because of gravity, everything falls straight toward the earth, toward the center of the planet. But throughout history, intelligent, creative people have dreamed of flight. This story centers around one of the most ironic developments in the history of human progress: flight. And not just flight, but flight as a way of unified the world. If you can fly in a plane from the UK to America, that means that everything is about to change forever. It's a miracle. Now, it's kind of ironic in the other way because we modern people think of air travel as a given, but it's really not something to be taken for granted, because after all—humans flying is a miracle.
The irony of violence
It's easy to take for granted that humans are violent, but actually, there's more tragedy to it than that. The division of Ireland is remarkably sad, because it really split a community apart. The violent Irish terrorists were often made violent by prolonged suffering and scarcity, by harsh difficult lives—but ironically, instead of recognizing that life is sacred, they decide to take out their anger and injustice on their own communities. That is a sad, twisted irony.
