1. “Dance of the Haymakers,” an 1845
painting by William Sidney Mount,
celebrates Irish-Americans’ vibrant
music and dancing culture.
How Irish-Americans shaped the politics and culture of early America | By Emily mcmackin
1492, history records that Christopher varied, but one characteristic always bound them:
In Columbus discovered America—but that’s
not how the Irish tell it. According to
Irish legend, Saint Brendan, a missionary
who left his homeland in the sixth century to spread
pride. Despite being scarred by centuries of poverty
and religious oppression, the Irish have embraced their
heritage, passing stories, songs and lessons of the past to
their descendants.
Christianity, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discov- From the ferociously independent Scots-Irish
ered America long before either Columbus or the Presbyterians, who fled religious and political oppres-
Vikings ever stepped foot on its shores. sion in Northern Ireland to become the settlers and
Saint Brendan’s journey may have been fictitious, but frontiersmen of Appalachia, to the poor Irish Catholics,
Irish folklore has always included tales of adventures who left their homes to escape starvation and banded
across a western ocean and stories of the mythical lands together in America’s cities to become a force for change,
that lay on the other side. It would be centuries before all have been part of forming the American character.
history would document the names of Irish explorers “We wouldn’t be the country we are today if not for
who arrived with the crews of Columbus and Sir Walter the presence of the Irish Protestants and Catholics,”
Raleigh or record the waves of 18th-century Irish says Peter Quinn, author of Looking for Jimmy: A Search
immigrants who made the perilous journey across the for Irish America (Overlook, 2007) and other books on
Atlantic. But a new world where every individual could Irish-American history. “They helped mold, make and
set the course of his life was always a hope of Irishmen. shape the republic of the United States. They were an
Just as the Irish seemed destined for America, America important part of its politics, economics and culture. IrIsh by the
seemed destined for the Irish. They’re integral to America’s story of itself.” Numbers
“In such a country, a man is most conscious of his Though these two groups of immigrants were very
value,” wrote John Francis Maguire in his 1868 book,
The Irish in America. “He is the architect of his country’s
different, “both tended to be against aristocracy and
inherited privilege and helped shape the values of
3
Irish-born signers of the
greatness, the author of her civilization, the miracle independence and the love of freedom that America Declaration of Independence
worker by whom all has been and can be accomplished.” prides itself on,” Quinn continues. “They helped make
By the time Maguire, a former Irish politician,
arrived in America in the mid-19th century, emi-
the democracy what it is.”
Most sectors of American culture today bear some
6
Irish-born generals in George
gration to the New World had become a way of life mark of Irish influence, from religion and politics to Washington’s Continental Army
in Ireland. To his countrymen back home, Maguire pop culture, sports and entertainment.
described the lives of immigrants against the backdrop This isn’t surprising considering that 36.5 million 15
of the new world versus the old. It was the difference Americans claim Irish heritage, according to census U.S. presidents with
between “stagnation, retrogression, if not actual decay” records, making it the second most frequently reported confirmed Irish ancestry
© THe GrAnGer ColleCTIon, neW York
and “life, movement, progress,” he wrote, and the dis- ancestry next to German. That number accounts for
parity between “depression, want of confidence, dark 12 percent of the U.S. population and exceeds the 17
apprehension of the future” and “energy, self-reliance population of Ireland by eight times. In every state but Irish-born men who gave their lives
and a perpetual looking forward.” New Mexico and Hawaii, Irish is among the top five at the Battle of the Alamo
Since the earliest records of Irish immigration in ancestries, with the percentage highest in Delaware,
the 1600s to present day, more than 7 million Irish New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 147
Medals of Honor earned by Irish-born
have traveled to America in search of a better life. Irish-Americans continue to celebrate their heri-
men out of the first 200 awarded
Their backgrounds and reasons for coming have tage today with hundreds of St. Patrick’s Day parades
Source: The Irish-American Museum
24 Daughters of the American Revolution American Spirit • of Washington, 2010
March/April D.C. 25

2. across the country, a tradition that family and friends over. “Once they were
dates back to March 17, 1762, when
Irish soldiers serving in the British
liberated, they were quite ambitious,”
Quinn says. Though they initially set-
A Proud PedIgree
army held the first St. Patrick’s Day tled near their ports of debarkation in
parade in New York City to honor Boston, New York and Philadelphia,
Irish-Americans band together to build a
their roots and connect with their many grew tired of living under elites in national museum to honor their heritage
countrymen. those cities and found themselves more
“Whether they were urban or rural, at home in the backcountries of Virginia,
poor or middle-class, Protestant Georgia and the Carolinas. WHen CArl SHAnAHAn CAMe To the frontier forward, to the Irish-American
or Catholic, the Irish helped give “They followed the frontier, where United States as a 19-year-old from presidents, vaudeville writers and sports
America its diversity,” Quinn says. the land was free, society was fluid, and Ireland’s County limerick in 1958, he pos- figures, “we want to tell the whole story
“Both groups stayed true to themselves you could start fresh and make yourself sessed nothing more than $50, dreams of from beginning to end,” says Patrick Sean
and their traditions, and brought those into somebody else,” Quinn says. living in Hollywood or Times Square, and a Flaherty, who boasts a rich lineage of Irish
with them and made them part of The Scots-Irish were used to defend- friendship with an American family, who ancestors on both sides of his family.
America.” ing land. Officials in Pennsylvania and gave him a place to stay until he found a Though the Irish-American community
And the freedom they enjoyed in other Colonies encouraged them to warehouse job paying 85 cents an hour. is vast and diverse, the group hopes to
America ultimately allowed the Irish to come to the frontier to keep American Today, the 71-year-old Stamford, Conn., make the museum a home for all those of
heal parts of their own tumultuous past. Indian tribes at bay and push the bor- resident owns three companies operating Irish and Scots-Irish descent. “We felt the
“As long as they lived in Ireland, the ders westward. Many of these settlers in 12 states and is proud of both his Irish best way to get broad support was to put
Catholics and Protestants were at each traveled down the Great Philadelphia roots and the life he has built for himself the museum in the nation’s capital where
other’s throats, but thanks to the resil- Wagon Road, the main route for set- as an American citizen. everyone can feel it’s something they are
iency of democracy, they learned to live tling the interior southern Colonies, “The story of America is the story of part of,” Dougherty says.
Above: An Irish cartoon
together, and both made the country from 1881 illustrates which carried them through Virginia’s the Irish-American,” Shanahan says. “We Since promoting the idea, Shanahan,
stronger and better,” Quinn says. the huge decline in the Shenandoah Valley, and south into the have grown with America. We have found Dougherty and Flaherty have garnered
population of Ireland Piedmont region of the Carolinas. opportunity here. We are part and parcel support from Irish-American associa-
from 1841 to 1881 due
to emigration as well as At the end of long, backbreaking days of the country and its culture. If I could tions and universities with Irish study
deaths during the Great in the fields, families would get together, design a country, this would be the one I programs, and they hope to eventually
Potato Famine pull out their instruments and play and would design.” assemble a national board to spear-
Life in the oLd LAnd of the 1840s.
sing songs from the old country. The like Shanahan, millions of Irish immi- head the effort. With the size of the
The tension between Ireland’s two left: Immigrants exiting culture they brought to America was grants have been coming to the United Irish-American population, “we hope
Above: © THe GrAnGer ColleCTIon, neW York, beloW: CourTeSY oF IrISH AMerICAn MuSeuM oF WASHInGTon D.C.
religious groups stemmed from a con- a ship that has arrived at portable and grounded in life experi- States as adventurers, laborers and to be able to fund the museum without
ellis Island.
flict that began in the 17th century, when ences—music and dance that eventu- entrepreneurs since the 1700s. Through relying on the government for support,”
England gained control of West Ireland ally led to the evolution of clogging and their tenacity and ingenuity, they not only Shanahan adds.
and started bringing in Protestant set- bluegrass and country music. created the kind of life they were seeking, not only will the museum include
tlers to displace Catholics from their “They didn’t have the cultural institu- but they also helped make the American exhibits about Irish-Americans and their
land. In a migration organized by the
British Crown, hoards of immigrants
from the Scottish lowlands settled into
and religious rituals received no official
sanction. The British were so threat-
ened by Ulster’s burgeoning linen trade
C
Coming to AmeriCA
tions that Europeans had like museums,
universities and orchestras; they carried
the culture with them in music, storytell-
dream possible for others. For the past
two years, Shanahan and a group of other
Irish-Americans have been planning a
role in helping found, fight for and shape
the nation, it will also hold a research
and genealogical center, as well as an
the northern county of Ulster, lured by that they passed laws limiting the coun- ing and dance,” Quinn says. “That sense national museum in Washington, D.C., to auditorium to showcase Irish-influenced
promises of cheap land and low rents. ty’s freedom to export goods. Disillusioned by religious conflict, of popular culture that we have today is honor their legacy. dance, music, films, plays and other
Catholics were relegated to the low- Under harsh British dictatorship, lack of political autonomy and economic right out of Irish culture.” “Many people, including Irish- cultural events. Dougherty hopes that
est rung of the tradition-bound soci- most Irishmen, despite their religion, hardship, the Scots-Irish of Ulster were Irish Catholics made up a smaller Americans, don’t realize the contributions patrons will walk away with a deeper
ety, and penal laws prevented them had little hope of advancing in soci- the first to turn their eyes to what their portion of the Irish who emigrated dur- we have made to this country,” says Jim appreciation for the contributions of the
from voting, owning land, getting an ety. When Benjamin Franklin visited Presbyterian ministers called “the land ing the Colonial era. Those who came Dougherty, whose great-great-grandfather, Irish and a greater sense of pride in their
education or pursuing a skilled trade. Ireland in 1771, he noted that the “poor- of Canaan.” More than three-fourths tended to be wealthier and less devout Felix, was among the influx of immigrants ancestry.
The religious oppression extended est farmer in North America was better of the Irish immigrants who arrived in than the millions who arrived dur- who came to America during Ireland’s “As we all become more and more
to other groups as well. Though the off than the average Irish farmer.” America during the 18th and early 19th ing Ireland’s Great Potato Famine in Great Potato Famine in the 1840s. “The assimilated into America, it’s easy to lose
Scots-Irish settlers in Ulster received “If you were born a tenant farmer, century came from Ulster. Many were the 1840s. One of the most prominent Irish were here from the beginning and touch with our roots,” Dougherty says.
more privileges than the native Irish, you died one,” Quinn says. “The idea so desperate to get out of Ireland that immigrants of the early American period have been involved and active in every “everywhere there are stories that need to
many were practicing Presbyterians, that there was a place where you could be they agreed to work as indentured ser- was Charles Carroll, who settled in aspect of American life, from finance and be told. If we don’t record them now, they
which made them “dissenters” in the something different from what you were vants for a few years in exchange for pas- Maryland in 1688, and whose grandson politics to the arts and sports.” will be lost to future generations.”
eyes of the Anglican government and born, that you could give your children sage to America. would become the only Catholic signer From Scots-Irish heroes like Davy For more information, visit
reduced them to second-class citizens. a better life, you couldn’t find that in a Often the immigrants were skilled of the Declaration of Independence. Crockett, who pushed the American www.irishamericanmuseumdc.org.
They were excluded from political and society like Ireland, but the possibilities workers and artisans who sent most of Most of the earliest Irish immi-
military offices, and their weddings were immense in the United States.” their earnings back to Ireland to bring grants assimilated into their adopted
26 Daughters of the American Revolution American Spirit • March/April 2010 27

3. homeland easily, in part because of
their independent nature and their
Protestant background. Assimilation
was harder for Irish Catholics, who
were in the minority and, in some
Puritan-dominated areas, ostracized for
their beliefs. These immigrants, who
were raised in small tight-knit commu-
nities in Ireland, tended to stick closer
to the coastline, congregating in large
cities where they could attend church
together. Later, they championed the
nation’s first social programs, building
schools and forming “Irish Aid” societ-
ies to help immigrants who followed.
But for both groups, immigration
brought a sense of finality that helped
them let go of their old life and embrace
the new. “For those who came during
the 18th and 19th centuries, there was no
going back,” Quinn says. “When some- enemy supplies and ships—all before
one got ready to leave for America, their the first shot was fired.
family and friends would hold a wake Though the English-American
the night before because they knew they aristocracy framed the intellec-
would never see that person again.” tual arguments for the movement
toward independence, “it was the
Scots-Irish who would bring the fire
O of the revolution to the pulpits of
almost every frontier church and
also provide a disproportionate share of Top: Andrew Jackson at the battle of new
on the front Lines guns and soldiers to the battlefield once orleans in January 8, 1815. Jackson was the first
in a long line of presidents with Irish ancestry.
As stirrings of a revolution spread the war broke out,” writes James Webb 1910 oil painting by e. Percy Moran.
across the land, the Irish—Catholics and in Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped
Protestants alike—were one of the few America (Broadway, 2004). Above: An 1861 Civil War recruiting poster
appeals to Irish immigrants in Philadelphia,
ethnic groups united in their opposi- In New England regiments, up to encouraging them to enlist in a company to
tion to the British Crown and among 20 percent of the men had Irish sur- be attached to the Irish brigade of the 69th
the first to volunteer to fight. names; in the middle states where most regiment of the new York State Militia.
“We weren’t fighting for liberty of the Irish had settled, it ran as high
we didn’t have; we were fighting to as 70 percent. The First Pennsylvania the rebellion, forcing the small British
defend liberty that already existed,” Brigade boasted so many Irish-born unit into a bloody frontal assault.
says Thomas Fleming, Irish-American, men it was called “The Line of Ireland,” “Without the Irish at Bunker Hill,
Revolutionary War historian and author a group that became known “not only we wouldn’t have won that first battle,”
of George Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden for their battlefield tenacity, but also Fleming says. Stark went on to organize
History of Valley Forge (Smithsonian, 2005). for their loyalty during the brutal win- local militiamen in New Hampshire and
“To the Irish, that liberty meant some- ter of 1777 at Valley Forge, where lead an attack on Hessians at the Battle
thing more precious because they had they remained steadfast while large of Bennington, weakening General John
seen what had happened when they were numbers of soldiers deserted George Burgoyne’s invading army.
© THe GrAnGer ColleCTIon, neW York
deprived of it.” Washington,” Webb writes. In South Carolina, Scots-Irish reg-
The Irish knew what it meant to live First- and second-generation iments, commanded by the “Swamp
under an established church and desired Irishmen played a crucial role at the Fox” Francis Marion, defended the
a different reality for their descendants. Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. Southern theater. A band of Tennessee
Many Irish-Americans risked their Commanded by Irish-American John and North Carolina frontiersmen won
lives launching the initial acts of defi- Stark, who later became a colonel in a decisive victory over the British at the
ance against the British. They formed Washington’s army, the group smashed Battle of King’s Mountain—a victory
militias, plotted ambushes and captured a column of light infantry sent to quell that hastened the end of the war.
28 Daughters of the American Revolution

4. NotAble NAmes The fervor of these soldiers Irish immigration halted during the
Irish men and women prompted one Hessian captain to Napoleonic wars, but picked back up
who shaped U.S. history remark, “Call this war by whatever as soon as they ended. As Ireland grew
name you may, only call it not an more destitute, Irish-Catholic immi-
American rebellion; it is nothing more grants poured into the United States.
Patrick Maguire than a Scotch-Irish [sic] Presbyterian Whole families arrived to escape star-
First member of Christopher Columbus’ rebellion.” vation, but many lacked the skills and
crew to step foot on north American soil. resources of the Irish who came before.
Patrick Carr
Fifth and final victim killed during the
B This wave of immigrants found
their salvation in the “rough, rude work
of building America,” Fleming says.
Boston Massacre. BoLstering the repuBLiC Between 1817 and 1825, 50,000 of them
With the birth of the republic, Irish helped dig the Erie Canal, while oth-
John Sullivan involvement in America grew stronger. ers laid the first railroad tracks, toiled in
led one of the first acts of defiance against In 1800, the Irish turned out in huge coal mines and helped build the infra-
the British in 1774, organizing a raid on a numbers to vote for Thomas Jefferson, structure of the United States. Others
regiment stationed at Fort William and Mary who introduced a filled the ranks of the
in Portsmouth, n.H., and confiscating 100 Republican style of nation’s policemen and
barrels of gunpowder, later used by patriots government. firefighters. By the mid-
at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Though political dif- 1800s, three-fourths
ferences later divided of New York City’s
Margaret Corbin them, Irish Protestants policemen were Irish,
Fought beside her husband, John, in 1776, and Catholics “loved according to Maguire.
to defend Fort Washington in northern the idea of a republic Whatever hardships
Manhattan from attacking Hessians under where every man was Irish immigrants faced
British command. When her husband was the equal of the other, when they arrived and
killed, she took over for him, firing his and together they during later chapters
cannon until she was wounded. determined the nature of the nation’s history,
of the government,” nothing could stop
Richard Fleming says. them from reaching
Montgomery “Both groups had the American dream
Considered by lived under a govern- that had consumed
This 1873 sheet music cover of
some historians ment where they felt “Patrick’s Day Parade” spotlights one their imagination for so
to be the first they weren’t repre- of the early successes of the Irish- many years.
American general sented and didn’t have
American comedy team of Harrigan
Each generation
and Hart.
killed during the a say, so they had a sacrificed to bolster the
revolutionary War. real enthusiasm for a democracy where next one and, today, Irish-Americans
Montgomery, a everyone could vote and everyone’s vote are one of the country’s wealthiest eth-
brigadier general and Dublin native, was counted,” he adds. nic groups, according to census reports.
killed in the Battle of Quebec during the Elected in 1828, Andrew Jackson, As the issue of immigration continues
1775 invasion of Canada. the first in a long line of presidents to consume our national discourse, there
with Irish lineage, championed the is much we could learn from the experi-
James Hoban values his ancestors fought so hard to ence of the Irish, according to Quinn.
Irish native who studied architecture in attain. While the Scots-Irish advanced “For every group that came in as out-
Dublin and won a competition in 1792 to Republicanism, the Irish Catholics pro- siders, it has been a struggle to adapt,
design the nation’s presidential mansion, moted the philosophy of social welfare but that’s what makes us Americans,” he
later known as the White House. and government that served the people. says. “We all come from different tradi-
© THe GrAnGer ColleCTIon, neW York
“They formed the democratic orga- tions, but at the core we are coming here
John Barry nization we now know as the ‘machine,’ and building something new, different,
Known as the “father of the U.S. navy,” which brought another dimension to and better with the things we bring.”
this County Wexford emigrant and his crew politics in America,” Fleming says. “They
fought and won the final naval battle of the may not have had the resources other Emily McMackin wrote about Alabama’s early
American revolution off the coast of Cape immigrants did, but they had numbers 19th-century settlement of French immigrants—
Canaveral on March 10, 1783. and the vote—and they learned how to the Vine and Olive Colony—for the November/
use it.” December 2009 issue.
30 Daughters of the American Revolution