Word has arrived from my favorite Irish Patriot! Who sends us all things Irish! We can hope that the "troubles" have not flamed again in N. Ireland

Here is the first of some Irish themes that I'll send around before St. Patrick's Day.


Paul R.Irish

The Irish in America

The diaspora (dispersion) of Irish to America was immortalized in the words of many songs including the famous


Irish ballad, "The Green Fields of America":


So pack up your sea-stores,


consider no longer,


Ten dollars a week is not very bad pay,


With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages,


When you're on the green fields of America.





The experience of Irish immigrants in America has not always been harmonious, however.


Irish newcomers were sometimes uneducated and often found themselves fighting Americans for manual labor jobs or, in the 1860s, being recruited off the docks by the U.S. Army to serve in the American Civil War.





This view of the Irish-American experience is depicted by another traditional song, "Paddy's Lamentation":





Hear me boys,


now take my advice,


To America I'll have ye's not be going,


There is nothing here but war,


where the murderin' cannons roar,


And I wish I was at home in dear old Dublin.





The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led occasionally by racist and anti-Catholic stereotypes.





In modern times, in the United States, the Irish are largely perceived as hard workers. Most notably they are associated with the positions of police officer, firefighter, Roman Catholic Church leaders and politicians in the larger Eastern-Seaboard metropolitan areas.





Irish Americans number over 44 million, making them the second largest ethnic group in the country, after German Americans.





The largest Irish American communities are in Chicago, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Kansas City and Savannah, Georgia. Each city has an annual St Patrick's Day parade with Savannah having the largest one.





The parade in Boston is closely associated with Evacuation Day, when George Washington and his troops forced the British out of Boston during the Revolutionary War.





At state level, Texas has the largest number of Irish Americans.





According to the 1990 U.S. Census, Arkansas list 9.5% of the population as Irish descendent, primarily located in the southeast part of the state.





In percentage terms, Boston is the most Irish city in the United States and Massachusetts the most Irish state.Before the Great Hunger ("Irish Potato Famine") and the associated British policies resulted in over a million dead and more emigrated, there had been the Penal Laws which had already resulted in significant emigration from Ireland.