Dennis P. Ryan first came to know Boston as a young Western Union boy in the 1950s. After a tour in Vietnam with the Marine Corps, he received his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Massachusetts. The author of Beyond the Ballot Box: A Social History of the Boston Irish, 1845-1917, Ryan has lectured throughout the United States and Canada on the Irish experience in America and has recently served as a consultant to a major television documentary on the Boston Irish.