The Irish in America
Part One
The first British settlement, Jamestown, was established in a place called America in 1607. For the next 200 years, an estimated 200,000 native Irish, and another 400,000 planted Irish originating from Scotland embarked on the long journey across the Atlantic. Approximately 75% of these numbers hailed from the Irish province of Ulster. During this time, most native Irish lived and worked in the more populated northern colonies, while most Scotch-Irish migrated to the southern colonies.
As the colonists moved their way towards a limited independence, the British enacted restrictive legislation designed to fasten the yoke of servitude. The colonists responded by creating an independent Provincial Congresses, and in 1774 the colonies joined as one under a Continental Congress. After a protracted guerilla war against the British and their Loyalists, the British surrendered in 1781. Of the estimated 450,000 Loyalists living in the Colonies at the time, approximately 400,000 remained, with the New York City area remaining a Loyalist bastion.
The 1800s saw two distinct waves of Irish emigration to America, each resulting from oppressive British policies designed to rid Ireland of the Irish. The first wave resulted when British landlords enforced massive tenant evictions so as to maximize the amount of grazing land available for the rising cattle industry. The second resulted from the intentional starvation of the remaining Irish by their British masters. Often incorrectly referred to as a famine, this genocidal decimation of native Irish resulted with over 1 million men, women and children allowed to slowly starve to death while their British landlords sat nightly at bountiful dinner tables.
In America, employment opportunities for the Irish were few, and the racist attitudes of those remaining Loyalists were prevalent. For several Irish, the only option for survival was an American military uniform, often serving under British American officers who treated them poorly. The Mexican – American war 1846-1848 found a large contingent of Irish American soldiers switching allegiances to Mexico under the banner of the San Patricio Brigade.
During the American Civil War 1861-1865, most wore the Union uniform, although several wore that of the Confederacy. Thomas Francis Meagher, who was initially sentenced to death for his part in the Young Irelanders’ 1848 uprising, and who eventually escaped from Australia and landed in New York, led the Union force known as the Irish Brigade.
In 1876, the famous prison escape known as the Catalpa Rescue took place in Australia. This escape was organized by the Clan na Gael in America after they received a letter from Irish prisoner James Wilson entitled “A Voice From The Tomb.” In total, Wilson and five other Irish Republican Brotherhood prisoners escaped the terror of Fremantle Prison and went on to live out their lives as free men. Wilson settled in Rhode Island, and met Eamon de Valera in 1920 when de Valera was touring the United States garnering support for the newly established Irish Republic.
