Irish America

Irish America

Irish immigration

family album |  The Road to Bright City

Submitted by Thomas Hynes of Boston, MA

Fall 2025

by 1 Comment

My grandfather John Bernard “Barney” Hynes and his brother, Thomas J. Hynes emigrated in their early teens from Lochrea, Galway, Ireland to Boston, Massachusetts in 1875. They were children of the famine – sent to America by their parents because there was no future for them in Ireland. Barney got a job with the Elevated Railroad Company, and Tom went to Harvard where he spent … [Read more...] about family album |  The Road to Bright City

Canada Recognizes Irish Famine Memorial

By Michael Quigley

May/June 1996

by Leave a Comment

The Irish in Canada have won a major victory over the Canadian Government on how the national historic site at Grosse Ile should be developed. The small island in the St. Lawrence River, 48 kilometers downstream from Quebec City, once served as a quarantine station, and is the burial site of thousands of Irish immigrants who died of cholera in 1832, and of typhus, ship fever, … [Read more...] about Canada Recognizes Irish Famine Memorial

The Hands that Built America

By Kara Rota
June / July 2010

by 2 Comments

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

A Postcard from Prince Edward Island

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief
October / November 2004

by Leave a Comment

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

By Marian Betancourt, Contributor
October / November 2003

by Leave a Comment

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