The roots of Irish immigration to North America are steeped in misfortune and maltreatment. They came in search of many things and after they arrived, they found prejudice, poverty and discrimination. The history of the Irish in America is a vast albeit untold story that tends toward extremes. Consigned to either wealth and fame or abject poverty, the Irish labored greatly to attain a position in America’s middle class.

In their homeland, the Irish were ridiculed and reviled. During the twelfth century, when the English King employed Welsh historian, Giraldus Cambrensis to record and document the island of Ireland and it’s people. The report he produced, entitled Topographia Hibernica (The Topography of Ireland) portrayed the Irish as stupid and barbaric:

“but habits are formed by mutual intercourse; and as this people inhabit a country so remote from the rest of the world, and lying at its furthest extremity, forming, as it were , another world, and are thus secluded from civilized nations, they learn nothing, and practice nothing but the barbarism in which they are born and bred, which sticks to them like a second nature.” This was excuse enough for Henry II to invade and conquer the country.

For the next eight hundred years, the English brutally crushed each attempt at self-rule. To justify their own actions, English writers and politicians continually denigrated the Irish people, labeling them as savages, unable to manage themselves. They were assigned sub-human status and given a position in the hierarchy of mankind as slightly above the Negro but well below the English.

After being driven from their land and eventually from their country by the English, the Irish came to America and faced further ridicule. Many who felt the shame of centuries of oppression and abuse renounced their “Irishness” by changing their names and becoming more American than Americans.

Coming west, the Irish escaped the prejudice and poverty they found in the east. For a people who rarely before had ventured more than ten miles from their birthplace, the Irish overcame any obstacle, adjusted to any situation and adapted to the new land they chose. That they were here to stay is reflected in the statistical evidence that shows fewer Irish returned home than any major European immigrant group in America. In the west, the Irish re-discovered their love of the land. While the majority followed their eastern brethren into the mines, railroads and public service jobs, many prospered by working the land in ways they never knew in Ireland. Acres of wheat and herds of cattle made fortunes for some and at least a decent living for others. They sacrificed so that the following generations could attend higher education. They served their new country through military service in time of war in numbers greater than most ethnic immigrant groups.

What they found in America and particularly in the west was that a person found success or failure based on his personal efforts, not on their lineage or political affiliation. That is not to say that such things did not occur in America, cronyism has been a part of American politics since the first settlements. The Irish soon discovered the one thing they did have was numerical superiority in many voting wards. Soon they found that by aligning themselves with other Irish immigrants and developing reciprocal relationships, they could gain control of many aspects of their own lives. Ultimately, this afforded them the opportunity to succeed for themselves and their families.

In hundreds of communities and in thousands of ways, the Irish built a goodly portion of the American landscape, often working anonymously as one person in a crowd of soot-stained miners, or as a businessman pushing his forward-thinking agenda for a town he was determined to see grow. Most would not declare their Irishness loudly in hopes of fitting in and assimilating into the American culture while others wore it on their sleeve like a tartan. The Irish have lent their talents to many fields: politics, literature, science, theatre and sports, and have distinguished themselves in all of them. Fifteen U.S. Presidents, countless senators, congressmen and women claim Scotch-Irish ancestry.

The roots of Irish immigration to North America are steeped in misfortune and maltreatment. They came in search of many things, once they arrived; they found prejudice, poverty and discrimination. The move westward was a logical extension of the desires that drove them from their home country: freedom, opportunity and a chance to escape the undeserved legacy their heritage had burdened them with. The history of the Irish in America is a vast albeit untold story that tends toward extremes. Consigned to either wealth and fame or abject poverty, the Irish labored greatly to attain a position in America’s middle class. Part of that labor was the need to abandon their “Irishness” and everything it connoted in America. The sole exception was the celebrating of St. Patrick’s Day, traditionally a quiet family celebration and religious observance akin to Easter, was transformed into a green-beer soaked, plastic shamrock, Kiss me I’m Irish (But just for today!) American aberration.

Despite twentieth-century problems in Ireland (and sometimes because of them) there has been a resurgence of Irish culture and Celtic pride in this century. Celtic music, dancing and literature have brought Irish-Americans out of their self-imposed cultural exile and into the mainstream of American life.

Irish-Americans have a proud past that includes building much of the infrastructure of this country. They have been among the first in line to stand up to defend freedom and defeat global tyranny in all of our wars. Irish men and women have occupied elected offices throughout our country’s history and have been some of our most enlightened business leaders. Irish entertainers have graced stage and screen for more than a century and have left a legacy of achievement that is difficult to match.

The North American continent would be a far different place without the hard work, creativity and joy the Irish peoples have brought with them on their journey from famine to feast.