Irish America

Irish America

Irish Emigrants

Photo Album: “Give Me a Wee Step”

By Maureen Foster

Winter 2024

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In this photograph taken in 1925, my mother Kathleen (far left), her mother and father Sam and Ellen Bell, and 10 other siblings pose as they leave their home in Crossgar, County Down. They journeyed to the United States and settled in Chicago, where, after only four years, my granddad died, leaving Grandma Ellen to raise a family of 11. Ellen was a woman of tremendous faith … [Read more...] about Photo Album: “Give Me a Wee Step”

From the Emerald Isle to the Copper Mines

By George Everett
August / September 2000

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A historical look at the Irish of Butte, MontanaMarcus Daly, who became one of the richest men in the West, was born in 1841, in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, the youngest of eleven children of a farm family. At 15 he arrived in New York City with very little money and limited education. It took him five years to save enough money to buy passage to San Francisco where he had a … [Read more...] about From the Emerald Isle to the Copper Mines

Having a Care
for Irish Emigrants

By Mairead Carey, Contributor
October / November 2002

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A new plan that proposes funding to allow elderly emigrants to return to Ireland, and increasing the funding for services at home and abroad to care for elderly emigrants, has been unveiled in Dublin. The report calls for setting up an independent agency for emigrants, to be called the Agency for Irish Abroad. It would be responsible for funding cultural and sporting … [Read more...] about Having a Care
for Irish Emigrants

Confessions of a
Bronx Irish Catholic

By Peter Quinn, Contributor
October / November 2000

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Over the years, I've spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about what it means to be Irish. Occasionally, my public writings and ruminations on the subject have led to me being described (and dismissed) as a "professional Irishman." If only it were true! Unfortunately, I'm still a semi-pro, forced to make a living at activities unrelated to my ethnic investigations.A … [Read more...] about Confessions of a
Bronx Irish Catholic