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Irish Americans

Irish Americans are a group of people comprising Americans who have full or part of their ancestry from Ireland.

There are around 10% of the American population who identify as having an Irish History, this accounts for 33 million people in America.

Half of the Irish Immigrants came from the Irish province of Ulster and moved to the United States in its colonial-era 1607-1775. The other half came from the other three provinces of Ireland which were Leinster, Munster and Connacht.

Then between 1845 and 1855 more than 1.5 million adults and children left Ireland to seek refuge in America. Most were very poor, and many were suffering from starvation and disease. They left because the disease had devastated Ireland’s potato crops, leaving millions without food. The Potato Famine killed more than 1 million people in five years and generated great resentment at the British for providing too little help to their Irish subjects. The immigrants who reached America settled in Boston, New York, and other cities where they lived in difficult conditions. But most managed to survive, and their descendants have become a vibrant part of American culture.

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