When did the first Irish immigrants arrive in the U.S.?
Irish Canadians
The first waves of Irish immigrants took place between 1763 and 1880. when ten thousand Irish immigrants arrived on the Island. From 1800 to 1850, "10,000 immigrants from every county in Ireland" had settled in Prince Edward Island and represented 25% of the Island population by 1850.
History of New York City (1784–1854)
The city's cosmopolitan attitude and tolerance of many different cultures encouraged many different types of immigrant groups to settle in the city. Starting in the late 1840s, the city saw increased Irish immigration with the Great Irish Famine and German immigration with the Revolutions of 1848. People who came from Ireland were poor, without knowledge of their new world; once arrived on the docks, unscrupulous landlords offered them squalid tenements which were once houses for middle-class New Yorkers. They crowded into dirty rooms, and the slums of the city became known for high rates of disease. Immigrants were skilled laborers and craftsmen, and Germans who settled in a new neighborhood named "Kleindeutschland" (Little Germany) and opened many shops where they worked as artisans. Many Irish immigrants were responsible for building the subway and sky-scrapers.
Ireland, Indiana
The town was founded on land purchased from the United States government by John Stewart, a native of Ireland, on December 23, 1816. The town was once intended to be called American City, but changed to Ireland when the name was not approved by the post office department. The town was laid out by John Stewart's son James, and four others. The first town map is dated May 20, 1865, but had been a small village many years before that.
Gaels
Christianity reached Ireland during the 5th century, most famously through a Romano-British slave Patrick, but also through Gaels such as Declán, Finnian and the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. The abbot and the monk eventually took over certain cultural roles of the "aos dána" (not least the roles of "druí" and "seanchaí") as the oral culture of the Gaels was transmitted to script by the arrival of literacy. Thus Christianity in Ireland during this early time retained elements of Gaelic culture.
Demographic history of the United States
After 1820 immigration gradually increased. For the first time federal records, including ship passenger lists, were kept for immigration. Total immigration for the year 1820 was 8,385, gradually building to 23,322 by 1830, with 143,000 total immigrating during the intervening decade. From 1831 to 1840 immigration increased greatly, to 599,000 total, as 207,000 Irish, even before the famine of 1845-49, started to emigrate in large numbers as Britain eased travel restrictions. 152,000 Germans, 76,000 British, and 46,000 French formed the next largest immigrant groups in that decade.
Irish people
The Irish people of the Late Middle Ages were active as traders on the European continent. They were distinguished from the English (who only used their own language or French) in that they only used Latin abroad—a language "spoken by all educated people throughout Gaeldom". According to the writer Seumas MacManus, the explorer Christopher Columbus visited Ireland to gather information about the lands to the west, a number of Irish names are recorded on Columbus' crew roster preserved in the archives of Madrid and it was an Irishman named Patrick Maguire who was the first to set foot in the Americas in 1492; however, according to Morison and Miss Gould, who made a detailed study of the crew list of 1492, no Irish or English sailors were involved in the voyage.
History of immigration to the United States
The following were the countries of origin for new arrivals to the United States before 1790. The regions marked with an asterisk were part of Great Britain. The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names from the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. The Irish in the 1790 census were mostly Scotch-Irish. The French were primarily Huguenots. The total U.S. Catholic population in 1790 was probably less than 5%. The Native American population inside territorial U.S. boundaries was less than 100,000.
Iowa
When American Indians first arrived in what is now Iowa more than 13,000 years ago, they were hunters and gatherers living in a Pleistocene glacial landscape. By the time European explorers and traders visited Iowa, American Indians were largely settled farmers with complex economic, social, and political systems. This transformation happened gradually. During the Archaic period (10,500–2,800 years ago), American Indians adapted to local environments and ecosystems, slowly becoming more sedentary as populations increased.
Geography of Halloween
In the United States, where lingering Puritan tradition restricted the observance of many holidays, Halloween did not become a holiday until the 19th century. The transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish following the Irish Great Famine (1845–1849) brought the holiday to the United States.
Prehistoric Ireland
The last ice age fully came to an end in Ireland about 8000 BC. Until the single 2016 Palaeolithic dating described above, the earliest evidence of human occupation after the retreat of the ice was dated to the Mesolithic, around 7000 BC. Although sea levels were still lower than they are today, Ireland was very probably already an island by the time the first settlers arrived by boat, very likely from Britain. The earliest inhabitants of the island were seafarers who depended for much of their livelihood upon the sea, and later inland settlements or camps were usually close to water.
Irish language outside Ireland
Irish people brought the language with them to North America as early as the 17th century (when it is first mentioned). In the 18th century it had many speakers in Pennsylvania. Immigration from Irish-speaking counties to America was strong throughout the 19th century, particularly after the Famine, and many manuscripts in Irish came with the immigrants.
Scotch-Irish Americans
A few generations after arriving in Ireland, considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots emigrated to the North American colonies of Great Britain throughout the 18th century (between 1717 and 1770 alone, about 250,000 settled in what would become the United States). According to Kerby Miller, "Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America" (1988), Protestants were one-third the population of Ireland, but three-quarters of all emigrants leaving from 1700 to 1776; 70% of these Protestants were Presbyterians. Other factors contributing to the mass exodus of Ulster Scots to America during the 18th century were a series of droughts and rising rents imposed by often absentee English and/or Anglo-Irish landlords.
American cuisine
The Irish arrived in America in a rather woeful state, as Ireland at the time was often plagued by some of the worst poverty in Europe and often heavy disenfranchisement among the masses: many of them arrived barely alive having ridden coffin ships to the New World, sick with typhus and starvation. In addition, they were the first to face challenges other groups did not have: they were the first large wave of Catholics. They faced prejudice for their faith and the cities of Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore were not always set up for their needs. For example, Catholic bishops in the U.S. mandated until the 1960s that all Catholics were forbidden from eating red meat on Fridays and during Lent, and attending Mass sometimes conflicted with work as produce and meat markets would be open on holy days; this was difficult for Irishmen supporting families since many worked as laborers. Unsurprisingly, many Irishmen also found their fortunes working as longshoremen, which would have given their families access to fish and shellfish whenever a fisherman made berth, which was frequent on the busy docks of Baltimore and New York. Though there had been some activity in Baltimore in founding a see earlier by the Carrolls, the Irish were the first major wave of Catholic worship in this region, and that meant bishops and cardinals sending away to Europe for wine. Part of the Catholic mass includes every parishioner taking a sip of wine from the chalice as part of the Eucharist. Taverns had existed prior to their emigration to America in the region, though the Irish brought their particular brand of pub culture and founded some of the first saloons and bars that served stout and red ale; they brought with them the knowledge of single malt style whiskey and sold it. The Irish were the first immigrant group to arrive in this region in massive millions, and these immigrants also founded some of the earliest saloons and bars in this region, of which McSorley's is an example.
It was also in this region that the Irish introduced something that today is a very important festival in American culture that involves a large amount of food, drink, and merry making: Halloween. In England and Wales, where prior immigrants had come from, the feast of All Hallows Eve had died out in the Reformation, dismissed as superstition and excess having nothing to do with the Bible and often replaced with the festival of Guy Fawkes Night. Other immigrant groups like the Germans preferred to celebrate October 31 as Reformation Day, and after the American Revolution all of the above were less and less eager to celebrate the legacy of an English festival when they had fought a very bloody war to leave the British Empire. The Catholicism of the Irish demanded attendance at church on November 1 and charity and deeds, not just faith, as a cornerstone of dogma, and many of their older traditions survived the Reformation and traveled with them. Naturally, they went door-to-door to collect victuals for masked parties as well as gave them out, like nuts to roast on the fire, whiskey, beer, or cider, and barmbracks; they also bobbed for apples and made dumb cakes. Later in the century they were joined by Scots going guising, children going door-to-door to ask for sweets and treats in costume. From the Mid Atlantic this trend spread to be nationwide and evolved into American children trick-or-treating on October 31 wearing costumes and their older counterparts having wild costume parties with lots of food and drink like caramel apples, candy apples, dirt cakes, punch, cocktails, cider (both alcoholic and non,) pumpkin pie, candy corn, chocolate turtles, peanut brittle, taffy, tipsy cake, and copious buckets full of candy; children carving jack-o-lanterns and eating squash derived foods derive from Halloween's heritage as a harvest festival and from Irish and Scottish traditions of carving turnips and eating root vegetables at this time of year. Their bobbing for apples has survived to the present day as a Halloween party classic game, as has a variation on the parlor game of trying to grab an apple hanging from the ceiling blindfolded: it has evolved into trying to catch a donut in one's teeth.
Ethnic groups in Syracuse, New York
The Irish came to the territory of Onondaga County as soldiers with the English Army during the American Revolutionary War circa 1776, however, there were only a few hundred Irish who settled in Onondaga County before the era of the "Great Potato Famine" from 1848 to 1855.
Scotch-Irish Americans
Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) Americans are American descendants of Ulster Scots and Anglo-Irish Protestant Dissenters from various parts of Ireland, but usually from the province of Ulster, who migrated during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 2017 American Community Survey, 5.39 million (1.7% of the population) reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 3 million (0.9% of the population) identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry, and many people who claim "American ancestry" may actually be of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The term "Scotch-Irish" is used primarily in the United States, with people in Great Britain or Ireland who are of a similar ancestry identifying as Ulster Scots people. Most of these emigres from Ireland had been recent settlers, or the descendants of settlers, from the Kingdom of England or the Kingdom of Scotland who had gone to the Kingdom of Ireland to seek economic opportunities and freedom from the control of the episcopal Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church. These included 200,000 Scottish Presbyterians who settled in Ireland between 1608 and 1697. Many English-born settlers of this period were also Presbyterians, although the denomination is today most strongly identified with Scotland. When King Charles I attempted to force these Presbyterians into the Church of England in the 1630s, many chose to re-emigrate to North America where religious liberty was greater. Later attempts to force the Church of England's control over dissident Protestants in Ireland were to lead to further waves of emigration to the trans-Atlantic colonies.
History of the Irish in Louisville
The new wave of Irish began in 1812 when James Anderson migrated to Louisville. He started a successful wholesale dry goods store and also directed the Louisville branch of the Bank of the United States and joined the Louisville Commons Council. By 1825, many new Irish had come to Louisville, starting jobs such as candlemaking, groceries and boardinghouses.
Irish diaspora
Henry Nourse, a shipowner at the Cape, brought out a small party of Irish settlers in 1818. In 1823, John Ingram brought out 146 Irish from Cork. Single Irish women were sent to the Cape on a few occasions. Twenty arrived in November 1849 and 46 arrived in March 1851. The majority arrived in November 1857 aboard the "Lady Kennaway". A large contingent of Irish troops fought in the Anglo-Boer War on both sides and a few of them stayed in South Africa after the war. Others returned home but later came out to settle in South Africa with their families. Between 1902 and 1905, there were about 5,000 Irish immigrants. Places in South Africa named after Irish people include Upington, Porterville, Caledon, Cradock, Sir Lowry's Pass, the Biggarsberg Mountains, Donnybrook, Himeville and Belfast.
Reynolds (surname)
Like many Irish families, the Reynolds began emigrating from Ireland in two fronts, early in America's history; As they settled in the northeast prior to the American Revolution. And later in the 19th century during the Great Irish Hunger, when millions of Irish Catholics came to North America. The first wave of Irish immigrants were most exclusively Anglo-Irish Protestant converts from Northern Ireland; which differentiates them distinctly from the second wave of Irish potato famine refugees, whom were evidently Roman Catholic and from Mainland Ireland.
History of Dublin to 795
In Ireland the commencement of the Iron Age around 600 BC is generally believed to coincide with the first appearance in this country of Celtic-speaking peoples. There is little archaeological evidence to support the theory of a large-scale Celtic invasion (or series of invasions), but it is quite possible that small groups of migrants, highly skilled in the art of war and armed with superior iron weaponry, were powerful enough to gain a foothold in the island and eventually succeeded in subjugating or absorbing the pre-Celtic natives; in the 12th century of the Common Era small bands of heavily armed Anglo-Normans did just this, so there is no conceivable reason why it could not also have happened in the pre-Christian era.
Irish Canadians
The Irish immigrants were majority Protestant before the famine years of the late 1840s, when far more Catholics than Protestants arrived. Even larger numbers of Catholics headed to the United States; others went to Great Britain and Australia.
Americanization (immigration)
The initial stages of immigrant Americanization began in the 1830s. Prior to 1820, foreign immigration to the United States was predominantly from the British Isles. There were other ethnic groups present, such as the French, Swedes and Germans in Colonial times, but comparably, these ethnic groups were a minuscule fraction of the whole. Soon after 1820, for the first time, there began a substantial Irish and German migration to the United States. Up until 1885, immigrants were overwhelmingly Northwestern European (90% in that year) which brought a similar culture to that already existing in the U.S. maintaining stability within their bubble of natives and newcomers. By 1905, a major shift had occurred, and three-fourths of these newcomers were born in Southern and Eastern Europe. Their religion was mainly Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Jewish; Americanization became more difficult because of the notable contrasts of customs, habits, and ideals to those of Northern and Western European immigrants.
Ireland–United States relations
The Scots-Irish were some of the first settlers in the 13 colonies and played an important role in The War of Independence, as well as being some of the first cattle drivers in North America. The Irish exerted their own influence inside the United States, particularly through Democratic Party politics. From 1820 to 1860, 2 million Irish arrived in the United States, 75% of these after the Great Irish Famine (or "The Great Hunger") of 1845–1852, struck. Most of them joined fast-growing Irish shantytowns in American cities. The famine hurt Irish men and women alike, especially those poorest or without land. It altered the family structures of Ireland because fewer people could afford to marry and raise children, causing many to adopt a single lifestyle. Consequently, many Irish citizens were less bound to family obligations and could more easily migrate to the United States in the following decade.
Irish Channel, New Orleans
Significant emigration from Ireland to the United States occurred during the period 1810 - 1850, with a particularly large wave to New Orleans during the decade of the 1830s. The point of debarkation was Adele Street, where many immigrants, penniless, took up residence in simple cottages, providing the beginnings of today's shotgun houses. These Irish immigrants arrived primarily to dig the New Basin Canal, and were generally regarded as expendable labor. Many of these immigrants were misled by shipping companies who led prospective immigrants to believe that New Orleans was close to other Irish enclaves in the United States such as New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. New Orleans subsequently had the largest Irish population in the American South. These Irish immigrants were predominantly Roman Catholic, in contrast to the Protestant Scotch-Irish that were more common as immigrants to most of the rest of the Southeastern United States. In addition to the Irish Channel, many Irish immigrants also settled at Irish Bayou, in present-day Eastern New Orleans.
History of Boston
The earliest Irish settlers began arriving in the early 18th century. Initially they were indentured servants who came to work in Boston and New England for five to seven years, before gaining their independence. They were mainly individuals and families, and they were forced to hide their religious roots since Catholicism was banned in the Bay Colony. Then in 1718, congregations of Presbyterians from Ulster in the north of Ireland began arriving in Boston Harbor. They were referred to as Ulster Irish but later were referred to as Scots-Irish because many of them had roots in Scotland. The Puritan leaders initially sent the Ulster Irish to the fringes of the Bay Colony, where they settled places like Belfast, Maine, Londonderry and Derry, New Hampshire, and Worcester, Massachusetts. But by 1729 they were permitted to set up a church in downtown Boston.
History of St. Louis (1804–65)
The second major group of pre-Civil War immigrants came from Ireland, including both Catholic and Protestant Irish. Although in other regions Irish immigrants were equated with poverty during the 1820s and 1830s, the early Irish community of St. Louis in the 1830s often included wealthy, politically powerful and influential members, such as John Mullanphy, Alexander McNair, and John O'Fallon. However, starting in the mid-1840s large numbers of Irish fled poverty abroad and arrived in St. Louis with little money or skills. Many of these Irish were motivated by the Irish potato famine of 1845–1846 and the failed Irish uprising of 1848.
Irish people in Jamaica
The first wave of Irish immigrants occurred in the early 17th century, Irish emigrant principally sailors, servants, and merchants. Many of the poorer emigrants were displaced Gaelic-Irish and Anglo-Irish Catholics, as well as convicts who were indentured servants. Many of the indentured servants were transported unwillingly. More than 2,000 children alone were sent on ships from Galway Bay. Of those surviving the long journey many more succumbed to disease, the harsh conditions and unfamiliar tropical conditions.
Irish Americans
Between 1607 and 1820, the majority of emigrants from Ireland to America were Protestants who were described simply as "Irish". The religious distinction became important after 1820, when large numbers of Irish Catholics began to emigrate to the United States. Some of the descendants of the colonial Irish Protestant settlers from Ulster began thereafter to redefine themselves as "Scotch Irish", to stress their historic origins, and distanced themselves from Irish Catholics; others continued to call themselves Irish, especially in areas of the South which saw little Irish Catholic immigration. By 1830, Irish diaspora demographics had changed rapidly, with over 60% of all Irish settlers in the US being Catholics from rural areas of Ireland.
Demographic history of the United States
From 1841 to 1850 immigration exploded to 1,713,000 total immigrants and at least 781,000 Irish, with the famine of 1845-1849 driving them, fled their homeland to escape poverty and death. In attempting to divert some of this traffic to help settle Canada, the British offered bargain fares of 15 shillings for transit to Canada, instead of the normal 5 pounds (100 shillings). Thousands of poor Irish took advantage of this offer and headed to Canada on what came to be called the "coffin ships" because of their high death rates. Once in Canada, many Irish walked across the border or caught an intercoastal freighter to the nearest major city in the United States - usually Boston or New York.
Irish in Omaha, Nebraska
The Irish have comprised a major component of Omaha's immigrant community since the 1860s. Coming to the city in large numbers to build the Union Pacific Railroad starting in 1864, many Irish immigrants stayed to work in the railroads and took jobs as laborers in the wholesaling district. As many as 10,000 Irish laborers worked out of Omaha along the Union Pacific lines as they sprawled across the Western United States. Few had come directly from Ireland, instead arriving in Omaha via New York City, Boston, and other cities in the Eastern United States. During the twelfth and final meeting of the Nebraska Territory Legislature a group of 31 Irish leaders in the community promoted George Francis Train becoming a Senator for the new state because he had, "advocated so long the cause of Irish nationality." In 1863 Edward and Mary Creighton donated land to the local Catholic bishop, the Right Rev. James O'Gorman, to build a convent on the banks of the Missouri River. The Sisters of Mercy opened an academy and schools soon afterwards. The Creightons also donated land for a cathedral which was dedicated to St. Philomena. O'Gorman, also Irish, died and was buried in Omaha at the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in 1874.
Economic history of the United States
Immigration to the U.S. surged following the Great Famine (Ireland). There were about 3 million immigrants during the decade of the 1850s. They were mainly from Germany, Ireland and England.
History of immigration to the United States
There was relatively little immigration from 1770 to 1830; while there was significant emigration from the U.S. to Canada, including about 75,000 Loyalists as well as Germans and others looking for better farmland in what is now Ontario. Large scale immigration resumed in the 1830s from Britain, Ireland, Germany, and other parts of Central Europe as well as Scandinavia. Most were attracted by the cheap farmland. Some were artisans and skilled factory workers attracted by the first stage of industrialization. The Irish Catholics were primarily unskilled workers who built a majority of the canals and railroads, settling in urban areas. Many Irish went to the emerging textile mill towns of the Northeast, while others became longshoremen in the growing Atlantic and Gulf port cities. Half the Germans headed to farms, especially in the Midwest (with some to Texas), while the other half became craftsmen in urban areas.
Opposition to immigration
In the United States, opposition to immigration has a long history, starting in the late 1790s, in reaction to an influx of political refugees from France and Ireland. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 severely restricted the rights of immigrants. Nativism first gained a name and affected politics in the mid-19th century United States because of the large inflows of immigrants from cultures that were markedly different from the existing Protestant culture. Nativists objected primarily to Roman Catholics, especially Irish Americans. Nativist movements included the American Party of the mid-19th Century (formed by members of the Know-Nothing movement), the Immigration Restriction League of the early 20th Century, and the anti-Asian movements in the West, resulting in the Chinese Exclusion Act and the so-called "Gentlemen's Agreement" which was aimed at the Japanese. Major restrictions became law in the 1920s and sharply cut the inflow until 1965, when they ended. The federal government took charge of finding and deporting illegal aliens, which it still does.
Saint Patrick's Day in the United States
Historically the largest entry port for Irish immigrants in the US South, New Orleans has maintained a large population of Irish heritage. The earliest record of Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in the city is 1809. Saint Patrick's Day traditions going back to the 19th century continue, including multiple block parties and parades.
Scotch-Irish Americans
The term is first known to have been used to refer to a people living in northeastern Ireland. In a letter of April 14, 1573, in reference to descendants of "gallowglass" mercenaries from Scotland who had settled in Ireland, Elizabeth I of England wrote: "We are given to understand that a nobleman named 'Sorley Boy' [MacDonnel] and others, who be of the Scotch-Irish race..." This term continued in usage for over a century before the earliest known American reference appeared in a Maryland affidavit in 1689/90.
Kilflynn
When the original Celts of Ireland actually arrived is unknown, with suggestions having been made of between 100 and 5000 years B.C. from linguistic and other evidence. The late Neolithic Beaker folk introduced their cultural advances possibly from the Low Countries or from Iberia; this resulted in key changes and Irish becoming a unique Celtic language. Recent evidence shows a huge number of Irish men have the R1b DNA marker with similarly high percentages also found in other modern 'celtic' areas on the European Atlantic coast, including the Basque region. The first known farmers in Ireland or Britain landed in Kerry c.4350 B.C. but the incidence of their DNA markers is now very scarce, the R1b marker replacing it c.2500 B.C. This coincides well with the arrival of a dominant Beaker culture, including the introduction of copper mining and metallurgy in Kerry.
European Americans
The first large wave of European migration after the Revolutionary War came from Northern and Central-Western Europe between about 1820 and 1890. Most of these immigrants were from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Britain, and with large numbers of Irish and German Catholics immigrating, Roman Catholicism became an important minority religion. Polish Americans usually used to come as German or Austrian citizens, since Poland lost its independence in the period between 1772 and 1795. Descendants of the first wave are dominant in the Midwest and West, although German descent is extremely common in Pennsylvania, and Irish descent is also common in urban centers in the Northeast. The Irish and Germans held onto their ethnic identity throughout the 19th and early half of the 20th centuries, as well as other European ethnic groups. Most people of Polish origin live in the Northeast and the Midwest (see also White ethnic).
Irish Americans
The early Ulster immigrants and their descendants at first usually referred to themselves simply as "Irish," without the qualifier "Scotch." It was not until more than a century later, following the surge in Irish immigration after the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, that some descendants of the Protestant Irish began to refer to themselves as "Scots-Irish" to distinguish them from the predominantly Catholic, and largely destitute, wave of immigrants from Ireland in that era. However, most descendants of the Scots-Irish continued to consider themselves "Irish" or "American" rather than Scots-Irish. The two groups had little initial interaction in America, as the 18th-century Ulster immigrants were predominantly Protestant and had become settled largely in upland regions of the American interior, while the huge wave of 19th-century Catholic immigrant families settled primarily in the Northeast and Midwest port cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo, or Chicago. However, beginning in the early 19th century, many Irish migrated individually to the interior for work on large-scale infrastructure projects such as canals and, later in the century, railroads.
Irish Setter
The Irish Setter was brought to the United States in the early 19th century.
History of immigration to the United States
Between 1841 and 1850, immigration nearly tripled again, totaling 1,713,000 immigrants, including at least 781,000 Irish, 435,000 Germans, 267,000 British, and 77,000 French. The Irish, driven by the Potato Famine (1845–1849), emigrated directly from their homeland to escape poverty and death. The failed revolutions of 1848 brought many intellectuals and activists to exile in the U.S. Bad times and poor conditions in Europe drove people out, while land, relatives, freedom, opportunity, and jobs in the US lured them in.
History of Irish Americans in Boston
Most of the early arrivals were Presbyterians from Ulster who came seeking relief from high rents, repressive taxes, and other pressures. Wary of Boston's Anglo-Saxon Puritans, who were hostile to the Irish, many moved to the outer fringes of the Bay Colony and founded towns such as Bangor and Belfast in Maine, and Londonderry and Derry in New Hampshire. The few Irish Catholics who settled in the Boston area had to convert or hide their identity, since Catholicism was outlawed. Other Irish immigrants may have come to Boston involuntarily, after being kidnapped by pirates. The "Boston News-Letter" announced an auction of Irish boys in 1730, and women convicts deported from Belfast were sold in Boston in 1749. Conflation of such immigrants, indentures, and convicts has given rise to the Irish slaves myth.
Indianapolis
The availability of new federal lands for purchase in central Indiana attracted settlers, many of them descendants of families from northwestern Europe. Although many of these first European and American settlers were Protestants, a large proportion of the early Irish and German immigrants were Catholics. Few African Americans lived in central Indiana before 1840. The first European Americans to permanently settle in the area that became Indianapolis were either the McCormick or Pogue families. The McCormicks are generally considered to be the first permanent settlers; however, some historians believe George Pogue and family may have arrived first, on March 2, 1819, and settled in a log cabin along the creek that was later called Pogue's Run. Other historians have argued as early as 1822 that John Wesley McCormick, his family, and employees became the first European American settlers in the area, settling near the White River in February 1820.
Irish immigration to Saint Kitts and Nevis
The Irish emigrated to the islands with the English, both as merchants and Irish indentured servants. One of the earliest known Irish settlers, merchant Gregory French of Galway, was there in 1630 when tried for "certain speeches ... tending to the dishonour" of King Charles I. In an incident at Kinsale in 1634, Irish emigrants were "ready to go ... to the West Indies ..[on a ship which] could have carried 150 passengers thence, for which passage there is commonly paid £6 per head ... and the freight of goods from Ireland to St Christopher, or other parts of the West Indies, is £3 to £4 per ton."
Irish Americans
The Irish people were the first of many to immigrate to the U.S. in mass waves, including large groups of single young women between the ages of 16 and 24. Up until this point, free women who settled in the colonies mostly came after their husbands had already made the journey and could afford their trip, or were brought over to be married to an eligible colonist who paid for their journey. Many Irish fled their home country to escape unemployment and starvation during the Great Irish Famine. The richest of the Irish resettled in England, where their skilled work was greatly accepted, but lower class Irish and women could find little work in Western Europe, leading them to cross the Atlantic in search of greater financial opportunities.
Immigration to the United States
Historians estimate that fewer than 1 million immigrants moved to the United States from Europe between 1600 and 1799. By comparison, in the first federal census, in 1790, the population of the United States was enumerated to be 3,929,214.
Irish Americans
Half of the Irish immigrants in the colonial era came from the Irish province of Ulster while the other half came from the other three provinces of Ireland (Leinster, Munster, and Connacht). While scholarly estimates vary, the most common approximation is that 250,000 migrated to the United States from 1717 to 1775. By 1790, approximately 400,000 people of Irish birth or ancestry lived in the United States. These early immigrants were overwhelmingly members of the Protestant minority in Ireland who descended from Scottish and English colonists and colonial administrators who had settled the Plantations of Ireland, the largest of which was the Plantation of Ulster. In Ireland, they are referred to as the Ulster Scots and the Anglo-Irish respectively (and as the Ulster Protestants collectively), and while they intermarried to some degree, they almost never intermarried with the native Irish Catholic population (in part because intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics was banned by the Penal Laws during the Protestant Ascendancy), and in turn, the Irish Catholics almost never converted to Protestant churches during the Reformation. (For that matter, intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland has remained rare into the 21st century and remains highly stigmatized due to the Troubles and the dissident Irish Republican campaign that has followed them.)
Irish Americans
The Irish were having a huge impact on America as a whole. In 1910, there were more people in New York City of Irish ancestry than Dublin's whole population, and even today, many of these cities still retain a substantial Irish American community. Mill towns such as Lawrence, Lowell, and Pawtucket attracted many Irish women in particular. The anthracite Coal Region of northeastern Pennsylvania saw a massive influx of Irish during this time period; conditions in the mines eventually gave rise to groups such as the Molly Maguires. The best urban economic opportunities for unskilled Irish women and men included "factory and millwork, domestic service, and the physical labor of public work projects."
Racism in the United States
Various European American immigrant groups have been subject to discrimination either on the basis of their immigrant status (known as "Nativism") or on the basis of their ethnicities (country of origin).
In the 19th century, this was particularly true of anti-Irish prejudice, which was partly anti-Catholic sentiment, partly anti-Irish as an ethnicity. This was especially true for Irish Catholics who immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-19th century; the large number of Irish (both Catholic and Protestant) who settled in America in the 18th century had largely (but not entirely) escaped such discrimination and eventually blended into the American white population. During the 1830s in the U.S., riots for control of job sites broke out in rural areas among rival labour teams from different parts of Ireland, and between Irish and local American work teams competing for construction jobs.
History of the Irish in Baltimore
Baltimore became a leading destination for Irish immigrants to the United States during the mid-1800s, with around 70,000 Irish people settling in the city during the 1850s and 1860s.
Séamus
In the United States, the word "Shamus" is a derogatory slang misspelling of Séamus that arose during the 19th century as more than 4.5 million Irish immigrated to America, peaking at almost two million between 1845 and 1852 during ""The Great Hunger"" (Irish: "An Gorta Mór"). Irish immigrants found employment in the police departments, fire departments and other public services of major cities, largely in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes, and have been over represented in the New York police since then. Though still used by some as a derogatory term, the great preponderance of Irish and Irish-American law enforcement officers led to a persisting stereotype, and the name "Shamus" continues to refer to Irish-American police and private detectives.
Irish Canadians
After the permanent settlement in Newfoundland by Irish in the late 18th and early 19th century, overwhelmingly from Waterford, increased immigration of the Irish elsewhere in Canada began in the decades following the War of 1812 and formed a significant part of The Great Migration of Canada. Between 1825 and 1845, 60% of all immigrants to Canada were Irish; in 1831 alone, some 34,000 arrived in Montreal.
Irish Canadians
In May 1830 the first ship of families from County Monaghan, in the province of Ulster, Ireland accompanied by Father John MacDonald who had recruited them, arrived on the Island to settle in Fort Augustus, on the lots inherited by Father John MacDonald from his father Captain John MacDonald. From the 1830s through 1848, 3,000 people emigrated from County Monaghan to PEI in what became known as the Monaghan settlements, forming the largest group of Irish to arrive on the Island in the first half of the 19th century.
Irish immigration to Barbados
Irish immigration to Barbados dates back to the 1620s, when Irish people began arriving on the island. The majority were emigrants, indentures, and merchants, though with an unknown number of political and convict transportees during the 1650s
Irish Americans
In Boston between 1810 and 1840 there had been serious tensions between the bishop and the laity who wanted to control the local parishes. By 1845, the Catholic population in Boston had increased to 30,000 from around 5,000 in 1825, due to the influx of Irish immigrants. With the appointment of John B. Fitzpatrick as bishop in 1845, tensions subsided as the increasingly Irish Catholic community grew to support Fitzpatrick's assertion of the bishop's control of parish government.
In New York, Archbishop John Hughes (1797–1864), an Irish immigrant himself, was deeply involved in "the Irish question"—Irish independence from British rule. Hughes supported Daniel O'Connell's Catholic emancipation movement in Ireland, but rejected such radical and violent societies as the Young Irelanders and the National Brotherhood. Hughes also disapproved of American Irish radical fringe groups, urging immigrants to assimilate themselves into American life while remaining patriotic to Ireland "only individually". In Hughes's view, a large-scale movement to form Irish settlements in the western United States was too isolationist and ultimately detrimental to immigrants' success in the New World.
Scotch-Irish Americans
According to "The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy", by Kory L. Meyerink and Loretto Dennis Szucs, the following were the countries of origin for new arrivals coming to the United States before 1790. The regions marked * were part of, or ruled by, the Kingdom of Great Britain. (The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after 1801) The ancestry of the 3,929,326 million population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (Thernstrom, S 1980, 'Irish,' p. 528), there were 400,000 Americans of Irish birth or ancestry in 1790; half of these were descended from Ulster, and half were descended from other provinces in Ireland. The French were mostly Huguenots and French Canadians. although only 17% of all Americans had any religious affiliation.The Indian population inside territorial U.S. 1790 boundaries was less than 100,000.
Cusack
Geoffrey de Cusack's arrival in Ireland was not long after the first Normans had landed in 1169.
History of the United States (1849–1865)
To fill the new factory jobs, immigrants poured into the United States in the first mass wave of immigration in the 1840s and 1850s. Known as the period of old immigration, this time saw 4.2 million immigrants come into the United States raising the overall population by 20 million people. Historians often describe this as a time of “push-pull” immigration. People who were “pushed” to the United States immigrated because of poor conditions back home that made survival dubious while immigrants who were “pulled” came from stable environments to find greater economic success. One group who was “pushed” to the United States was the Irish, who were attempting to escape the Great Famine in their nation. Settling around the coastal cities of Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, the Irish were not initially welcomed because of their poverty and Roman Catholic beliefs. They lived in crowded, filthy neighborhoods and performed low-paying and physically demanding jobs. The Catholic Church was widely distrusted by many Americans as a symbol of European autocracy. German immigrations, on the other hand, were “pulled” to America to avoid a looming financial disaster in their nation. Unlike the Irish, the German immigrants often sold their possessions and arrived in America with money in hand. German immigrants were both Protestant and Catholic, although the latter did not face the discrimination that the Irish did. Many Germans settled in communities in the Midwest rather than on the coast. Major cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri developed large German populations. Unlike the Irish, most German immigrants were educated, middle-class people who mainly came to America for political rather than economic reasons. In the big cities such as New York, immigrants often lived in ethnic enclaves called “ghettos” that were often impoverished and crime-ridden. The most infamous of these immigrant neighborhoods was the Five Points in New York City. With increasing labor agitation for higher wages and better working conditions in places like Lowell, Massachusetts, many factory owners began to replace female workers with immigrants who would work cheaper and were less demanding about factory conditions.
Irish Americans
Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Chicago have historically had neighborhoods with higher percentages of Irish American residents. Regionally, the most Irish American states are Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey in 2013. In consequence of its unique history as a mining center, Butte, Montana, is also one of the country's most thoroughly Irish American cities. Smaller towns, such as Greeley, Nebraska (population 466), with an estimated 51.7% of the residents identifying as Irish American as of 2009–13 were part of the Irish Catholic Colonization effort of Bishop O'Connor of New York in the 1880s.
Irish Americans
Of the approximately 250,000 immigrants from Ireland to the United States between 1717 and 1775, approximately 10,000 were Catholics (or about 4 percent). By 1800, the number of Irish Catholics who had immigrated had increased in absolute terms to approximately 20,000, but had declined in proportional terms (to less than 3 percent), as one-sixth of the white population in the United States by that time (which in the 1800 U.S. Census was 4,308,083) was composed of those of Scotch-Irish descent (or approximately 718,000). Like most Catholics in the United States at the time, these Irish Catholics settled largely in Maryland and Pennsylvania. In 1700, the estimated population of Maryland was 29,600, about one-tenth of which was Catholic (or approximately 3,000). By 1756, the number of Catholics in Maryland had increased to approximately 7,000, which increased further to 20,000 by 1765. In Pennsylvania, there were approximately 3,000 Catholics in 1756 and 6,000 by 1765. By the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, there were approximately 24,000 to 25,000 Catholics in the United States out of a total population of approximately 3 million. However, most of the Catholic population in the United States during the colonial period came from England, Germany, and France, not Ireland.
History of immigration to the United States
The colonial frontier was mainly settled from about 1717 to 1775. These were mostly Presbyterian settlers from North England border lands, Scotland, and Ulster, fleeing hard times and religious persecution. The fourth major center of settlement was the Western frontier, located in the Western parts of Pennsylvania and in the South, which was settled during the early to late 18th century by mostly Scots-Irish, with others mostly from North England border lands. Some French Huguenots and Germans were also present. Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scotch-Irish migrated to America in the 18th century. The Scotch-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Areas where people reported 'American' ancestry were the places where, historically, northern English, Scottish and Scotch-Irish Protestants settled: in the interior of the South, and the Appalachian region. Scotch-Irish American immigrants, were made up of people from the southernmost counties of Scotland who had initially settled in Ireland. They were heavily Presbyterian, and largely self-sufficient. The Scotch-Irish arrived in large numbers during the early 18th century and they often preferred to settle in the back country and the frontier from Pennsylvania to Georgia, where they mingled with second generation and later English settlers. They enjoyed the very cheap land and independence from established governments common to frontier settlements. Often, the main port of entry for these immigrants was Philadelphia, after which they (or, in many cases, their descendants) migrated west and south.
Irish Argentine
Between 1822 and 1829, at least 7,160 Irish immigrants arrived, being 1889 the peak of this migration (on 15 February of this year 1,774 people arrived on the steamer "SS Dresden"). Based on incomplete passenger list records, as well as on census returns (Buenos Aires 1855, national 1869 and national 1895) transcribed by Eduardo A. Coghlan (1982, 1987), researchers made elaborate calculations of the total number of immigrants. Juan Carlos Korol and Hilda Sabato estimated that the total number of Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century was between 10,500 and 11,500 ("Cómo fue la inmigración irlandesa a la Argentina", 1981 p. 48). However, further research conducted by Patrick MacKenna shows that Coghlan, Korol and Sabato did not consider return migration and re-migration, which was significant after the 1880s, as well as the high mortality ratios for the Irish immigrants in certain periods before the 1869 census (e.g. during the 1868 cholera outbreak in the Buenos Aires province).
For the nineteenth century, one out of every two Irish emigrants to Argentina went back to Ireland or re-migrated to the United States, Canada, Australia and other destinations. MacKenna says that Korol and Sabato "greatly underestimated the number of Irish immigrants" and considers that the total number of Irish immigrants in Argentina in the nineteenth century should be estimated in between 45,000 and 50,000 (M.A. thesis at NUI Maynooth, 1992, p. 83). The neglect of Anglo-Irish, Scot-Irish and in general Protestant Irish immigration in Argentina should add further numbers, particularly in the last peak of immigration after the 1920s Anglo-Irish War of Independence. The southernmost tip of Chile and Argentina, in places like the city of Punta Arenas and also the Falkland Islands, were other destinations for Irish and Scottish immigrants which are frequently underestimated.
Irish Americans
Since the arrival of nearly two million Irish immigrants in the 1840s, the urban Irish police officer and firefighter have become virtual icons of American popular culture. In many large cities, the police and fire departments have been dominated by the Irish for over 100 years, even after the ethnic Irish residential populations in those cities dwindled to small minorities. Many police and fire departments maintain large and active "Emerald Societies", bagpipe marching groups, or other similar units demonstrating their members' pride in their Irish heritage.
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
The International Institute movement began in 1911 in New York City as the brainchild of Edith Terry Bremer. Over the next six years, the movement spread across the nation with offices opening in Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. In 1922 the organization began publishing Interpreter Releases, a weekly immigration law update with 48 issues/year. In 1924 the National Origins Act, severely restricting the number of immigrants entering the country was passed as well as the Labor Appropriation Act which officially established the Border Patrol.
Irish Americans
Irish Americans () are an ethnic group comprising Americans who have full or partial ancestry from Ireland, especially those who identify with that ancestry, along with their cultural characteristics. About 33 million Americans — 10.5% of the total population — reported Irish ancestry in the 2013 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. This compares with a population of 6.7 million on the island of Ireland. Three million people separately identified as Scotch-Irish, whose ancestors were Ulster Scots and Anglo-Irish Protestant Dissenters who emigrated from Ireland to the United States. However, whether the Scotch-Irish should be considered Irish is disputed.
Filipino Americans
Filipino sailors were the first Asians in North America. The first recorded presence of Filipinos in what is now the United States dates back to October 1587 around Morro Bay, California, with the first permanent settlement in Louisiana in 1763, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration began in the early 20th century when, for a period following the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the Philippines was a territory of the United States. During the 1920s, a majority of Filipino immigrating to the United States were not skilled.
History of immigration to the United States
Thus began the first and longest era of immigration, lasting until the American Revolution in 1775; during this time settlements grew from initial English toe-holds from the New World to British America. It brought Northern European immigrants, primarily of British, German, and Dutch extraction. The British ruled from the mid-17th century and they were by far the largest group of arrivals, remaining within the British Empire. Over 90% of these early immigrants became farmers.
Irish Americans
Irish speakers continued to arrive in large numbers throughout the 19th century, particularly after the Famine. There was a certain amount of literacy in Irish, as shown by the many Irish-language manuscripts which immigrants brought with them. In 1881 "An Gaodhal" was founded, being the first newspaper in the world to be largely in Irish. It continued to be published into the 20th century, and now has an online successor in "An Gael", an international literary magazine. A number of Irish immigrant newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries had Irish language columns.
Scotch-Irish Americans
Transatlantic flows were halted by the American Revolution, but resumed after 1783, with total of 100,000 arriving in America between 1783 and 1812. By that point few were young servants and more were mature craftsmen, and they settled in industrial centers, including Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York, where many became skilled workers, foremen and entrepreneurs as the Industrial Revolution took off in the U.S. Another half million came to America 1815 to 1845; another 900,000 came in 1851-99. That religion decisively shaped Scotch-Irish culture.
Irish Americans
Of the total Irish immigrants to the U.S. from 1820 to 1860, many died crossing the ocean due to disease and dismal conditions of what became known as coffin ships.
Irish Americans
From 1820 to 1860, 1,956,557 Irish arrived, 75% of these after the Great Irish Famine (or "The Great Hunger", ) of 1845–1852, struck.
History of Ireland
Tradition maintains that in A.D. 432, St. Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. St Patrick's "Confession", in Latin, written by him is the earliest Irish historical document. It gives some information about the Saint. On the other hand, according to Prosper of Aquitaine, a contemporary chronicler, Palladius was sent to Ireland by the Pope in 431 as ""first Bishop to the Irish believing in Christ"", which demonstrates that there were already Christians living in Ireland. Palladius seems to have worked purely as Bishop to Irish Christians in the Leinster and Meath kingdoms, while Patrick – who may have arrived as late as 461 – worked first and foremost as a missionary to the pagan Irish, in the more remote kingdoms in Ulster and Connacht.
Patrick is traditionally credited with preserving and codifying Irish laws and changing only those that conflicted with Christian practices. He is credited with introducing the Roman alphabet, which enabled Irish monks to preserve parts of the extensive oral literature. The historicity of these claims remains the subject of debate and there is no direct evidence linking Patrick with any of these accomplishments. The myth of Patrick, as scholars refer to it, was developed in the centuries after his death.
Christianity in the United States
Beginning in the 16th century, the Spanish (and later the French and English) introduced Catholicism. From the 19th century to the present, Catholics came to the US in large numbers due to the immigration of Italians, Hispanics, Portuguese, French, Polish, Irish, Highland Scots, Dutch, Flemish, Hungarians, Germans, Lebanese (Maronite), and other ethnic groups.
Ireland
The earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC (12,500 years ago). Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD. The island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the 12th century Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland, as part of it, did the same.
Scotch-Irish Americans
Upon arrival in North America, these migrants at first usually identified simply as Irish, without the qualifier "Scotch". It was not until a century later, following the surge in Irish immigration after the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, that the descendants of the earlier arrivals began to commonly call themselves Scotch-Irish to distinguish themselves from the newer, predominantly Catholic and poor immigrants; these largely had no Scottish ancestry. At first, the two groups had little interaction in America, as the Scots-Irish had become settled decades earlier, primarily in the backcountry of the Appalachian region. The new wave of Catholic Irish settled primarily in port cities such as Boston, New York, Charleston, Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans, where large immigrant communities formed and there were an increasing number of jobs. Many of the new Irish migrants also went to the interior in the 19th century, attracted to jobs on large-scale infrastructure projects such as canals and railroads.
History of immigration to the United States
Irish and German Catholic immigration was opposed in the 1850s by the Nativist/Know Nothing movement, originating in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party (not to be confused with the modern Republican Party). It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to American values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. Active mainly from 1854–56, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, though its efforts met with little success. There were few prominent leaders, and the largely middle-class and Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery, most often joining the Republican Party by the time of the 1860 presidential election.
Indiana
Many European immigrants went west to settle in Indiana in the early 19th century. The largest immigrant group to settle in Indiana were Germans, as well as numerous immigrants from Ireland and England. Americans who were primarily ethnically English migrated from the Northern Tier of New York and New England, as well as from the mid-Atlantic state of Pennsylvania. The arrival of steamboats on the Ohio River in 1811, and the National Road at Richmond in 1829, greatly facilitated settlement of northern and western Indiana.
History of immigration to the United States
Between 1850 and 1930, about 5 million Germans migrated to the United States, peaking between 1881 and 1885 when a million Germans settled primarily in the Midwest. Between 1820 and 1930, 3.5 million British and 4.5 million Irish entered America. Before 1845 most Irish immigrants were Protestants. After 1845, Irish Catholics began arriving in large numbers, largely driven by the Great Famine.
Ireland
, a total of 34.5 million Americans claim Irish ancestry. Irish Americans today are predominantly Protestant, with a Catholic minority. In a 2014 poll, however, only half of the 40 million Americans who claimed Irish background (Scots-Irish, Anglo-Irish, Irish) self-identified as Irish Protestant (20 million), 13.3 million self-professed to be Irish Catholic, and the remainder (7.7 million) either did not answer or self-identified as nothing. The Protestants' ancestors (Scots-Irish from the north of Ireland) arrived primarily in the colonial era, while Catholics are primarily descended from immigrants of the 19th century. Irish leaders have been prominent in the Catholic Church in the United States for over 150 years while the Irish have been leaders in the Presbyterian and Methodist traditions as well. Surveys in the 1990s show that of Americans who identify themselves as "Irish", 51% said they were Protestant and 36% identified as Catholic; in the South, Protestants account for 73% of those claiming Irish origins, while Catholics account for only 19%. In the North, 45% of those claiming Irish origin are Catholic, while 39% are Protestant. Many African Americans and Native Americans claim Irish Protestant or Scots-Irish ancestry.
Irish Americans in New York City
Irish Americans make up approximately 5.3% of New York City's population, composing the second largest non-Hispanic white ethnic group. Irish Americans first came to America in colonial years (pre-1776), with immigration rising in the 1820s due to poor living conditions in Ireland. But the largest wave of Irish immigration came after the Great Famine in 1845. The largest number of Irish immigrants came from some of Ireland's most populous counties, such as Cork, Galway, and Tipperary, surprisingly large numbers also originated in Counties Cavan, Meath, Dublin, and Laois, places not usually associated with the highest levels of emigration.
History of the Irish in Louisville
The history of the Irish in Louisville, Kentucky, USA dates to the founding of the city. There were two major waves of Irish influence on Louisville - the Scots-Irish in the late 18th century, and those who escaped from the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s.
Irish Americans
Irish immigrants fell into three linguistic categories: monolingual Irish speakers, bilingual speakers of both Irish and English, and monolingual English speakers. Estimates indicate that there were around 400,000 Irish speakers in the United States in the 1890s, located primarily in New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Yonkers. The Irish-speaking population of New York reached its height in this period, when speakers of Irish numbered between 70,000 and 80,000. This number declined during the early 20th century, dropping to 40,000 in 1939, 10,000 in 1979, and 5,000 in 1995.
Bridget Diver
McKay mentions that "She is an Irish woman, has been in the country 16 years, and is now 26 years of age." This places her date of birth about 1839 and the year of her immigration around 1849. A detailed review of relevant immigration indexes reveals that a "Biddy Diver" arrived in Philadelphia on 14 July 1849 from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, aboard the ship "Afton". She was described as 11 years old and no other Diver names appeared on the ship's passenger list. The surname Diver is found almost exclusively in County Donegal, Ireland, which borders on Londonderry. It seems likely that she was one of the large number of Irish immigrants who came to America as a result of the potato famine. It is also true that there is no evidence that Bridget ever resided in Michigan.
Immigration to the United States
Irish immigration was opposed in the 1850s by the nativist Know Nothing movement, originating in New York in 1843. It was engendered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants. On March 14, 1891, a lynch mob stormed a local jail and lynched several Italians following the acquittal of several Sicilian immigrants alleged to be involved in the murder of New Orleans police chief David Hennessy. The Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at limiting immigration overall, and making sure that the nationalities of new arrivals matched the overall national profile.
Irish in Syracuse, New York
The potato famine of the late 1840s wiped out by fever and starvation about a fourth of Ireland's 8 million people. Many who could afford the $50 passage to America did so. Nearly 113,000 Irish came to America in 1848.
Irish immigration to Saint Kitts and Nevis
Irish immigration in Saint Kitts and Nevis began in the 1620s with the English settlement of the island, and continued into the 18th century.
History of education in the United States
As the nation was majority Protestant in the 19th century, most states passed a constitutional amendment, called Blaine Amendments, forbidding tax money be used to fund parochial schools. This was largely directed against Catholics, as the heavy immigration from Catholic Ireland after the 1840s aroused nativist sentiment. There were longstanding tensions between Catholic and Protestant believers, long associated with nation states that had established religions. Many Protestants believed that Catholic children should be educated in public schools in order to become American. By 1890 the Irish, who as the first major Catholic immigrant group controlled the Church hierarchy in the U.S., had built an extensive network of parishes and parish schools ("parochial schools") across the urban Northeast and Midwest. The Irish and other Catholic ethnic groups intended parochial schools not only to protect their religion, but to enhance their culture and language.
Irish Newfoundlanders
The Irish migrations to Newfoundland, and the associated provisions trade, represent the oldest and most enduring connections between Ireland and North America. As early as 1536, the ship Mighel (Michael) of Kinsale is recorded returning to her home port in County Cork with consignments of Newfoundland fish and cod liver oil. A further hint of what one scholar has termed a diaspora of Irish fishermen dates from 1608, when Patrick Brannock, a Waterford mariner, was reported to sail yearly to Newfoundland. Beginning around 1670, and particularly between 1750 and 1830, Newfoundland received large numbers of Irish immigrants.
American cuisine
Mass migrations of immigrants to the United States came in several waves. Historians identify several waves of migration to the United States: one from 1815 to 1860, in which some five million English, Irish, Germanic, Scandinavian, and others from northwestern Europe came to the United States; one from 1865 to 1890, in which some 10 million immigrants, also mainly from northwestern Europe, settled, and a third from 1890 to 1914, in which 15 million immigrants, mainly from central, eastern, and southern Europe (many Austrian, Hungarian, Turkish, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, and Romanian) settled in the United States.
The Irish in Us
The Irish in Us is a 1935 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Olivia de Havilland. Written by Earl Baldwin based on a story by Frank Orsatti, the film is about an Irish family consisting of a mother and three sons: a cop, a fireman, and a boxing promoter. Encouraged to find a real job, the boxing promoter makes one last attempt by promoting a fighter he believes will bring him a fortune. "The Irish in Us" was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on August 3, 1935.
George A. Garrett
George Angus Garrett (August 5, 1888 – September 29, 1971) was an American investment banker and diplomat. In April 1947, he was appointed minister to Ireland; in 1950, he became the first United States Ambassador to Ireland, a position he held until May 1951.
History of immigration to the United States
Based on available records, immigration totaled 8,385 in 1820, with immigration totals gradually increasing to 23,322 by the year 1830; for the 1820s decade immigration more than doubled to 143,000. Between 1831 and 1840, immigration more than quadrupled to a total of 599,000. These included about 207,000 Irish, starting to emigrate in large numbers following Britain's easing of travel restrictions, and about 152,000 Germans, 76,000 British, and 46,000 French, constituting the next largest immigrant groups of the decade.
Irish coffee
Stanton Delaplane, a travel writer for the "San Francisco Chronicle", maintains he brought Irish coffee to the United States after drinking it at Shannon Airport. His version is that he worked with the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco to start serving it on November 10, 1952., Sheridan later emigrated to work at the Buena Vista Cafe.
Annie Moore (immigrant)
Anna "Annie" Moore (April 24, 1874 – December 6, 1924) was an Irish immigrant who was the first immigrant to the United States to pass through federal immigrant inspection at the Ellis Island station in New York Harbor.
Americanization (immigration)
The Irish were the most influential ethnic group regarding the initial waves of immigration to the United States and of Americanization. Newly arrived immigrants in American cities had a hard time avoiding the Irish. There was no way around the Irish for the newcomers, as the Irish were present in every aspect of American working-class society. Between 1840 and 1890, more than 3,000,000 Irish immigrants had entered the United States, and by 1900, about 5,000,000 of their first and second generations were settled in. There were more Irish living in the United States than in Ireland. Irish Americans played a major role in the newcomer's Americanization. In other words, identity in the United States emerged from dynamic relationships among ethnic groups, as well as from particular groups' own distinct history and traditions.
Irish Canadians
The first recorded Irish presence in the area of present-day Canada dates from 1536, when Irish fishermen from Cork traveled to Newfoundland.
History of Indianapolis
The availability of new federal lands for purchase in central Indiana attracted settlers, many of them descendants of families from northwestern Europe. Although many of these first European and American setters were Protestants, a large proportion of the early Irish and German immigrants were Catholics. Few African Americans lived in central Indiana before 1840. The first European Americans to permanently settle in the area that became Indianapolis were either the McCormick or Pogue families. The McCormicks are generally considered to be the town's first permanent settlers; however, some historians believe George Pogue, his wife, and their five children may have arrived first, on March 2, 1819, and settled in a log cabin along the creek that was later called Pogue's Run. Other historians have argued as early as 1822 that John Wesley McCormick and his family, along with his brothers, James and Samuel, and their employees became the first European American settlers when he built a cabin along the White River in February 1820.
Irish Canadians
From the times of early European settlement in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Irish had been coming to Ontario, in small numbers and in the service of New France, as missionaries, soldiers, geographers and fur trappers. After the creation of British North America in 1763, Protestant Irish, both Irish Anglicans and Ulster-Scottish Presbyterians, had been migrating over the decades to Upper Canada, some as United Empire Loyalists or directly from Ulster.
Irish Americans
Irish immigrants of this period participated in significant numbers in the American Revolution, leading one British major general to testify at the House of Commons that "half the rebel Continental Army were from Ireland." Historiographer Michael J. O'Brien examined many of the muster rolls from the Revolutionary War and found mostly quintessential native Irish surnames and possible Anglicized Irish surnames, he estimated that some 38% of those in the revolutionary army were Irish. Irish Americans signed the foundational documents of the United States—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—and, beginning with Andrew Jackson, served as President.
Southern United States
Before the Civil War, the number of immigrants arriving at Southern ports began to increase, although the North continued to receive the most immigrants. Hugenots were among the first settlers in Charleston, along with the largest number of Orthodox Jews outside of New York City. Numerous Irish immigrants settled in New Orleans, establishing a distinct ethnic enclave now known as the Irish Channel. Germans also went to New Orleans and its environs, resulting in a large area north of the city (along the Mississippi) becoming known as the German Coast. Still greater numbers immigrated to Texas (especially after 1848), where many bought land and were farmers. Many more German immigrants arrived in Texas after the Civil War, where they created the brewing industry in Houston and elsewhere, became grocers in numerous cities, and also established wide areas of farming.
Catholic Church and politics in the United States
The role of Catholics in American culture and elections changed dramatically as a result of the mass immigration of Catholics from Europe, especially Germany and Ireland. By 1840, there were about 600,000 Catholics in the United States. In the 1840s, 200,000 Irish immigrated to escape poverty. The Irish Potato Famine in 1845 caused the Irish population in America to reach 962,000, the number doubling in the next ten years. Even larger numbers of immigrants arrived from traditionally Catholic regions of Germany and other parts of Europe. To the extent that these new arrivals remained inside ethnic communities, they typically joined the local Catholic church that through the local diocese was in communion with Rome; how many cut their ties with the Catholic Church is a matter of speculation. The Irish Catholics took controlling positions in the Catholic Church, labor unions, and Democratic organizations in the big cities, thus forming overlapping centers of strength. The sudden new arrival of so many Catholics, charges of political corruption, and fears of papal interference caused anti-Catholicism to grow, including the short-lived Know Nothings party in the 1850s which demanded a purification of elections and statutes from Catholic influence.
Irish Americans
Down to the end of the 19th century a large number of Irish immigrants arrived speaking Irish as their first language. This continued to be the case with immigrants from certain counties even in the 20th century. The Irish language was first mentioned as being spoken in North America in the 17th century. Large numbers of Irish emigrated to America throughout the 18th century, bringing the language with them, and it was particularly strong in Pennsylvania. It was also widely spoken in such places as New York City, where it proved a useful recruiting tool for Loyalists during the American Revolution.
Irish Americans
The first "Orange riot" on record was in 1824, in Abingdon Square, New York, resulting from a 12 July march. Several Orangemen were arrested and found guilty of inciting the riot. According to the State prosecutor in the court record, "the Orange celebration was until then unknown in the country." The immigrants involved were admonished: "In the United States the oppressed of all nations find an asylum, and all that is asked in return is that they become law-abiding citizens. Orangemen, Ribbonmen, and United Irishmen are alike unknown. They are all entitled to protection by the laws of the country."