The Irish-American contribution to popular entertainment is reflected in the careers of figures such as James Cagney, Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, John Ford, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Grace Kelly, Tyrone Power, Chuck Conners, Ada Rehan, Jena Malone, and Spencer Tracy.he Irish-American contribution to politics spans the entire ideological spectrum. Two prominent American socialists, Mary Harris Mother Jones and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, were Irish Americans. In the 1960s, Irish-American writer Michael Harrington became an influential advocate of social welfare programs.
The foreign-born population was less than 20 million or 7.9 percent of the total population in 1990, according to the Census Bureau. The bureau says the first âgreat waveâ of immigration took place between 1880 and 1930, when the foreign-born population represented between 12 and 15 percent of the total population.
The majority of immigrants to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries came from various parts of Britain in four waves. These four migration waves established the four major regional cultures that still affect life in the United States to this day.