Between 1845 and 1855, some 1.8 million left Ireland for Canada and the United States. Those who were lucky enough to survive the brutal journey to the New World were motivated by the hope of new possibilities, including the promise of employment. Ten thousand Micks They swung their picks To build the new canal But the choleray was stronger’n they And killed ’em all … [Read more...] about The Hands that Built America
Irish immigration
A Postcard from Prince Edward Island
The unique Irish / Scottish heritage of PEI, off the coast of Nova Scotia, is preserved in music and dance and in the faces of the people. ℘℘℘ "An always but never known place" is how Australian writer Thomas Keneally described his first visit to Ireland. That about describes how I felt a few hours after landing on Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada's smallest province (about … [Read more...] about A Postcard from Prince Edward Island
Pittsburgh Couple Finds Ancestors Are in the Same Boat
On their first date ten years ago in a French restaurant in Pittsburgh, John Kudlik and Susan Showalter, both part Irish, discovered they had something in common. John, a historian, is the great-great-grandson of Daniel Dowd, a farmer who came to America on the Jeanie Johnston in 1849. When he told Susan his family was from a town in Country Kerry called Ballymacelligot, she … [Read more...] about Pittsburgh Couple Finds Ancestors Are in the Same Boat
The Fading of
The Green at NYPD
"The Irish were part of the problem and part of the solution," said former New York cop and current college professor Hugh O'Rourke, PhD.
O'Rourke spoke at the First Annual Irish Heritage Day at the New York City Police Museum, a literal slip of a building in lower Manhattan in late April.
The official New York police department was set up in 1845. Coincidentally, 1845 was … [Read more...] about The Fading of
The Green at NYPD
Jeanie Sets Sail for New World
After many false starts, the Jeanie Johnston famine ship replica is on its way to the United States. If there is a symbol of the trials and tribulations of getting the Irish replica famine ship Jeanie Johnston to sea on its homage to history, Tom Kindre is the poster boy. When Tom McCarthy, the captain of the ship, quizzed him on crewing across the Atlantic, the member of the … [Read more...] about Jeanie Sets Sail for New World