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{{Infobox Ethnic group
 | group    =  Irish Americans <br />''Gael-Mheiriceánaigh''</small>
 | image    = [[Image:Irish Americans.jpg|270px|Famous Irish Americans]]
 | caption  = <small>[[John F. Kennedy]] • [[Mary Harris Jones|Mother Jones]] • [[George M. Cohan]]<br />[[James J. Braddock]] • [[Michael J. McGivney]] • [[James Michael Curley|James M. Curley]]<br />[[Victor Herbert]] • [[Eugene O'Neill]] • [[Ed Sullivan]]</small>
 | poptime  = '''Self-identified "Irish"'''<br />'''36,278,332'''<ref name="U.S. Census Bureau, 2008"/><br /><small>11.9% of the US population (2008)</small><br />'''Self-identified "Scotch-Irish"''' <br />'''3,538,444'''<ref name="U.S. Census Bureau, 2008">{{Cite web | url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-parsed=true&-ds_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-format= | title=United States - Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2008 }}</ref><br /><small>'''1.2% of the US population'''
 | popplace = Throughout the entire [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]], the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]], [[Southern United States|South]] and [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]], cities of [[Chicago]], [[Philadelphia]], [[Boston]], [[Baltimore]], [[New York City]], [[Los Angeles]], [[San Francisco]]
 | langs    = [[American English]], [[Irish language|Irish]]
 | rels     = [[Roman Catholic]]<br>[[Presbyterian]]<br>[[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] ([[Anglicanism]])<br>[[Baptist]]<br>[[Methodist]]
 | related  = [[Irish people]], [[Irish migration to Great Britain|Irish British]], [[Irish Canadian]]s, [[Irish immigration to Mexico|Irish Mexicans]], [[Scottish American]]s, [[Welsh American]]s, [[Cornish American]]s, [[Scots-Irish American]]s
}}

'''Irish Americans''' ({{lang-ga|Gael-Mheiriceánach}} singular, {{lang-ga|Gael-Mheiriceánaigh}} plural) are citizens of the [[United States]] who can trace their ancestry to [[Ireland]].  A total of 36,278,332 US-Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 [[American Community Survey]] conducted by the [[U.S. Census Bureau]].<ref name="census">{{Cite web| url = http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-format= | title = U.S. Census | publisher = U.S. Census Bureau | accessdate = 2008-04-13}}</ref>  Roughly another 3.5 million (or about another 1.2% of Americans) identified more specifically with [[Scotch-Irish American|Scotch-Irish]] ancestry.

The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans is [[German American]]s.<ref name="census"/>  The Irish are widely dispersed in terms of geography, and occupations. Irish American political leaders have played a major role in local and national politics since before the [[American Revolutionary War]]: eight Irish Americans signed the [[United States Declaration of Independence]], and 22 American Presidents, from Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama, have been at least partly of Irish ancestry.  (See [[#American Presidents with Irish ancestry|"American Presidents with Irish ancestry"]] below.)

==Irish immigration to America==
{{Main|Irish diaspora}}
{{See also|Scotch-Irish American|Irish Catholic}}

===18th to mid-19th century===
According to the ''Dictionary of American History'',<ref>Kutler, S. (2003). ''Irish Americans'', pp. 423–426.</ref> approximately "50,000 to 100,000 Irishmen, over 75 percent of them Catholic, came to America in the 1600s, while 100,000 more Irish Catholics arrived in the 1700s." [[Indentured servitude]] was an especially common way of affording migration, and in the 1740s the Irish made up nine out of ten indentured servants in some colonial regions.<ref>{{cite book | last =Dolan| first = Jay P. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Irish Americans: A History| publisher=Bloomsbury Press | date = 2008 |  page = 18 | isbn = 978-1596914193}}</ref>

Most colonial settlers of Ulster origin came to be known in America as the "Scotch-Irish".  They were descendants of [[Scottish people|Scottish]] and [[English people|English]] tenant farmers who had been settled in Ireland by the British government during the 17th-century [[Plantation of Ulster]].<ref>Philip Robinson, ''The Plantation of Ulster'', St. Martin's Press, 1984, pp. 52–55</ref>  An estimated 250,000 migrated to America during the colonial era.<ref>Scholarly estimates vary, but here are a few: "more than a quarter-million", Fischer, David Hackett, ''Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America'' [[Oxford University Press]], USA (March 14, 1989), pg. 606; "200,000", Rouse, Parke Jr., ''The Great Wagon Road'', Dietz Press, 2004, pg. 32; "...250,000 people left for America between 1717 and 1800...20,000 were Anglo-Irish, 20,000 were Gaelic Irish, and the remainder Ulster-Scots or Scotch-Irish...", Blethen, H.T. & Wood, C.W., ''From Ulster to Carolina'', North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 2005, pg. 22; "more than 100,000", Griffin, Patrick, ''The People with No Name'', [[Princeton University Press]], 2001, pg 1; "200,000", Leyburn, James G., ''The Scotch-Irish: A Social History'', [[University of North Carolina Press]], 1962, pg. 180; "225,000", Hansen, Marcus L., ''The Atlantic Migration, 1607–1860'', Cambridge, Mass, 1940, pg. 41; "250,000", Dunaway, Wayland F. ''The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania'', Genealogical Publishing Co (1944), pg. 41; "300,000", Barck, O.T. & Lefler, H.T., ''Colonial America'', New York (1958), pg. 285.</ref>   The Scotch-Irish settled mainly in the colonial "back country" of the [[Appalachia|Appalachian Mountain]] region, and became the prominent ethnic strain in the culture that developed there.<ref>Leyburn, James G., ''The Scotch-Irish: A Social History'', Univ of NC Press, 1962, pp. 184–255.</ref>  The descendants of Scotch-Irish settlers had a great influence on the later culture of the United States through such contributions as [[American folk music]], [[Country music|Country and Western]] music, and [[stock car racing]], which became popular throughout the country in the late 20th century.<ref>James Webb, ''Born Fighting'', Broadway Books (2004), pgs 253-264.</ref>

Irish immigrants of this period participated in significant numbers in the [[American Revolution]], leading one British major general to testify at the [[House of Commons of Great Britain|House of Commons]] that "half the rebel Continental Army were from Ireland."<ref>Philip H. Bagenal, ''The American Irish and their Influence on Irish Politics'', London, 1882, pp 12–13.</ref>  Irish Americans signed the foundational documents of the United States—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—and, beginning with [[Andrew Jackson]], served as President.

The early Ulster immigrants and their descendants at first usually referred to themselves simply as "Irish," without the qualifier "Scotch."  It was not until more than a century later, following the surge in Irish immigration after the [[Great Irish Famine]] of the 1840s, that the descendants of the Protestant Irish began to refer to themselves as "Scotch-Irish" to distinguish them from the  predominantly [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], and largely destitute, wave of immigrants from Ireland in that era.<ref>Leyburn, James G., ''The Scotch-Irish: A Social History'', Univ of NC Press, 1962, pp. 327–334.</ref>  The two groups had little initial interaction in America, as the 18th century Ulster immigrants were predominantly [[Protestant]] and had become settled largely in upland regions of the American interior, while the huge wave of 19th-century Catholic immigrant families settled primarily in the Northeast and Midwest port cities such as Boston, New York, or Chicago.  However, beginning in the early 19th century, many Irish migrated individually to the interior for work on large-scale infrastructure projects such as [[Erie Canal#Impact|canals]] and, later in the century, [[First_Transcontinental_Railroad|railroads]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Collins |first=R. M.|title=Irish Gandy Dancer: A tale of building the Transcontinental Railroad |year=2010 |publisher=Create Space |location=Seattle |isbn=978-1452826318 |page=198 |url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/1452826315/#reader_1452826315}}</ref>

====Irish settlement in the South====
{{Cleanup|sub-section|date=August 2010}}
{{Refimprove|subsection|date=August 2010}}
During the colonial period, the Scotch-Irish settled in the southern Appalachian backcountry and in the Carolina piedmont.<ref>Park Rouse, Jr., ''The Great Wagon Road'', Dietz Press (2004).</ref>  They became the primary cultural group in these areas, and their descendants were in the vanguard of westward movement through Virginia into Tennessee and Kentucky, and thence into Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. By the 19th century, through intermarriage with settlers of English and German ancestry, the descendants of the Scotch-Irish lost their identification with Ireland.  "This generation of pioneers...was a generation of Americans, not of Englishmen or Germans or Scotch-Irish."<ref>James Leyburn, ''The Scotch-Irish, A Social History'', University of North Carolina (1962), pgs 317–319.</ref>

Irish Catholics concentrated in a few medium-sized cities, where they were highly visible, especially in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] and [[New Orleans]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} They became local leaders in the Democratic party, generally favored preserving the Union in 1860, but became staunch Confederates after secession in 1861.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

In 1820 Irish-born [[John England (bishop)|John England]] became the first Catholic bishop in the mainly Protestant city of [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. During the 1820s and '30s, England defended the Catholic minority against Protestant prejudices. In 1831 and 1835, he established free schools for free African American children. Inflamed by the propaganda of the [[American Anti-Slavery Society]], a mob raided the Charleston post office in 1835 and the next day turned its attention to England's school. England led Charleston's "Irish Volunteers" to defend the school. Soon after this, however, all schools for "free blacks" were closed in Charleston, and England acquiesced.<ref>Joseph Kelly, "Charleston's Bishop John England and American Slavery", ''New Hibernia Review'' 2001 5(4): 48–56</ref>

Beginning as unskilled laborers, Irish Catholics in the South achieved average or above average economic status by 1900. David T. Gleeson wrote: 

{{quotation|Native tolerance, however, was also a very important factor in Irish integration [into Southern society].… Upper-class southerners, therefore, did not object to the Irish, because Irish immigration never threatened to overwhelm their cities or states.… The Irish were willing to take on potentially high-mortality occupations, thereby sparing valuable slave property. Some employers objected not only to the cost of Irish labor but also to the rowdiness of their foreign-born employees. Nevertheless, they recognized the importance of the Irish worker to the protection of slavery.…  The Catholicism practiced by Irish immigrants was of little concern to Southern natives.|David T. Gleeson|The Irish in the South, 1815–1877&nbsp;<ref>{{cite book |title=The Irish in the South, 1815–1877 |last= Gleeson |first=David T. |year=2001 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, N.C. |isbn=0807826391 |oclc=46685227 |pages=192–193 |url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807826391/#reader_0807826391 |accessdate=28 June 2011}}</ref>}}

===Mid-19th century and later===
[[Image:Chicago River dyed green, focus on river.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Chicago River]], dyed green for the 2005 St. Patrick's Day celebration.]]
Irish immigration had greatly increased beginning in the 1820s due to the need for labor in canal building, lumbering, and civil construction works in the [[Northeast United States|Northeast]].<ref name="ruckenstein195">Ruckenstein and O'Malley (2003), p. 195.</ref> The large [[Erie Canal]] project was one such example where Irishmen were many of the laborers. Small but tight communities developed in growing cities such as [[Philadelphia]], [[Boston]], [[New York City|New York]] and [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]].

From 1820 to 1860, 1,956,557 Irish arrived, 75% of these after the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Irish Famine]] (or ''The Great Hunger'', {{lang-ga|An Gorta Mór}}) of 1845–1852, struck.<ref name="libraryofcongress">{{Cite web| url = http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/irish2.html | title = Irish-Catholic Immigration to America | publisher = Library of Congress | accessdate = 2008-04-13}}</ref> The Famine hurt Irish men and women alike, especially those poorest or without land.<ref name="Erin's Daughters">{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R.|title=Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century|year=1983|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|pages=1–9, 31}}</ref>  It altered the family structures of Ireland because fewer people could afford to marry and raise children, causing many to adopt a single lifestyle. Consequently, many Irish citizens were less bound to family obligations and could more easily migrate to the United States in the following decade.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=31–32}}</ref>

Of the total [[Irish diaspora|Irish migrants]] to the U.S. from 1820 to 1860, many died crossing the ocean due to disease and dismal conditions of what became known as [[coffin ship]]s.<ref name="ruckenstein195" />

[[Image:TollgateRoscommon.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Gravestone]] in [[Forest Hills, Boston|Boston]] [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] [[cemetery]] erected in memory of [[County Roscommon]] native born shortly before [[Great Famine (Ireland)|The Great Famine]].]]

Most Irish immigrants to the United States favored large cities because they could create their own communities for support and protection in a new environment.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=40–41}}</ref>  Another reason for this trend was that Irish immigrants could not afford to move inland and had to settle close to the ports at which they arrived.<ref>{{cite web|title=Irish Immigration|url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAEireland.htm|work=Spartacus Educational|accessdate=17 April 2011}}</ref> Cities with large numbers of Irish immigrants included Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, as well as [[Pittsburgh]], [[Baltimore]], [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]], [[Chicago]], [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]], [[San Francisco]], and [[Los Angeles]]. In 1910, there were more people in New York City of Irish heritage than [[Dublin]]'s whole population, and even today, many of these cities still retain a substantial Irish American community.<ref>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. "New York (City)". ''The Encyclopedia Britannica''. 11th ed. Vol. XIX. New York: Encyclopedia Britannica Company, 1911. p. 617</ref> Mill towns such as [[Lawrence, Massachusetts|Lawrence]], [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]], and [[Pawtucket]] attracted many Irish women in particular. The best urban economic opportunities for unskilled Irish women and men included “factory and millwork, domestic service, and the physical labor of public work projects.”<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=40}}</ref>

Irish women’s initial experiences in the United States were largely shaped by the types of roles they fulfilled in their homeland. Although Irish culture gave more authority to husbands and fathers, it simultaneously recognized female power. In most cases in Ireland, wives handled money within the family, and a large number of them even worked in cities away from the home in domestic work or sales. Although older women asserted this kind of power, daughters were seen as less valuable than sons due to the patriarchal nature of society. As a result, young women had little hesitation in migrating, and their families saved money in order help finance the trip abroad.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=16–20}}</ref> Limited social and economic opportunities for daughters in Ireland in the second half of the nineteenth century caused a wave of young women to search for better possibilities in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=28–29}}</ref> The pull factors of the United States, especially job availability, caused Irish women to view their “journey with optimism, in a forward-looking assessment that in America they could achieve a status that they never could have at home.”<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=42}}</ref>

The female exodus of the mid-nineteenth century stands out in American history as the only major group of immigrants that was over fifty percent women.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=30}}</ref> Because of the decrease in marriages in Ireland, single Irish women, called “unprovided-for ‘girls’”, traveled to the United States to find employment and/or start families of their own.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=12}}</ref> Frustrated by the hardships of Irish farm life and alone in a new country without the help of other family members, female immigrants tended to settle in urban areas to find work.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=39}}</ref> Occupational options, such as domestic work, white-collar work, nursing and teaching, granted more authority to young women in the United States than in Ireland. Recognizing their own successes as single women, most decided to postpone marriage and taught their daughters to do the same. In fact, the majority of the most successful Irish women in America never married, and a significant number of them were nuns.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=46–49}}</ref>

Employment, not marriage, continued to be Irish women’s priority throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, and women outnumbered men in cities and mill towns where they worked in “factory jobs and millwork, domestic service and, later in the century, clerical and shop work.”<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=50}}</ref> However, Catholicism preached the centrality of women in the home, and Irish immigrants still respected the Church as the most important institution in their lives. Consequently, Irish women still pursued marriage and bore many children as long as they could meet economic needs.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=52–54}}</ref> Couples that could not support large families often had many children regardless of their economic status, and due to discrimination against Irish men in the workplace and their tendency to desert their wives, women usually bore the brunt of family responsibility.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=54–61}}</ref>

After 1860, Irish immigration continued, with another 1,916,547 arriving by 1900, mainly due to [[family reunification]], mostly to the industrial town and cities where Irish American neighborhoods had previously been established.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}
[[File:Orange Riot 1871 crop.jpg|thumb|right|The Orange riot of 1871 as depicted in ''[[Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper]]''.  The view is at [[25th Street (Manhattan)|25th Street]] looking south down [[Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)|Eighth Avenue]]]]
During the [[American Civil War]], Irish Americans volunteered in high numbers for the Union army, and at least thirty-eight Union regiments had the word "Irish" in their title{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}. However, conscription was resisted by the Irish and others as an imposition on liberty.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}} When the conscription law was passed in 1863, [[New York Draft Riots|draft riots]] erupted in New York. The New York draft coincided with the efforts of Tammany Hall to enroll Irish immigrants as citizens so they could vote in local elections. Many such immigrants suddenly discovered they were now expected to fight for their new country. The Irish, employed primarily as laborers, were usually unable to afford the $300 as a "commutation fee" to procure exemption from service, while more established New Yorkers receiving better pay were able to hire substitutes and avoid the draft.<ref>William V. Shannon, ''The American Irish: a political and social portrait'', Univ. of Massachusetts (1989), pgs 57–59, and Adrian Cook, ''The Armies of the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots of 1863'' (1982)</ref>  Many of the recent immigrants viewed freed slaves as competition for scarce jobs, and as the reason why the Civil War was being fought.<ref>Baker, Kevin (March 2003). "[http://americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2003/1/2003_1_17.shtml Violent City]" ''[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]]''. Retrieved 7-29-2010.</ref> African Americans who fell into the mob's hands were often beaten, tortured, or killed, including one man, William Jones, who was attacked by a crowd of 400 with clubs and paving stones, then hung from a tree and set alight.<ref name="Leslie M 2003">Leslie M, Harris, ''In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863'', University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (February 2, 2003)</ref><ref>{{Cite book| author = Leslie M. Harris | chapter = The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 | title = In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863 | url = http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html | pages = 279–288 | publisher = University of Chicago Press | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-0-226-31773-1 }}</ref>
The Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue, which provided shelter for hundreds of children, was attacked by a mob, although the largely Irish-American police force was able to secure the orphanage for enough time to allow orphans to escape.<ref name="Leslie M 2003"/><ref>{{Cite web
| title = Riots in New York
| url = http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1863/august/riots-in-new-york.htm
| work = Civil War Harper's Weekly, August 1, 1863
| publisher = SonoftheSouth.net
}}</ref>

In 1871, New York's [[Orange Riots]] were incited by Irish Protestants celebrating the [[Battle of the Boyne]] with parades through predominantly Catholic neighborhoods. 63 citizens, mostly Irish Catholics, were massacred in the resulting police-action.<ref>{{cite book |title=Street Justice: A History of Police Violence in New York City |last=Johnson|first=Marilynn S. |publisher=Beacon Press |year=2003}}</ref>

====Language====
Irish immigrants fell into three linguistic categories: [[monolingual]] [[Irish language|Irish]] speakers, [[bilingual]] speakers of both Irish and [[English language|English]], and monolingual English speakers.<ref>{{cite book | last = Bayor | first = Ronald H. | authorlink = | coauthors = Timothy J. Meagher | title = The New York Irish| publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press | date = 1997 |  page = 253 | isbn = 978-0801857645}}</ref> Estimates indicate that there were around 400,000 Irish speakers in the United States in the 1890s, located primarily in [[New York City]], [[Philadelphia]], [[Boston]], [[Chicago]] and [[Yonkers]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Bayor | first = Ronald H. | authorlink = | coauthors = Timothy J. Meagher | title = The New York Irish| publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press | date = 1997 |  page = 254 | isbn = 978-0801857645}}</ref> The Irish speaking population of New York reached its height in this period, when speakers of Irish numbered between 70,000 and 80,000.<ref>{{cite book | last = Bayor | first = Ronald H. | authorlink = | coauthors = Timothy J. Meagher | title = The New York Irish| publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press | date = 1997 |  page = 274 | isbn = 978-0801857645}}</ref> This number declined during the early 20th century, dropping to 40,000 in 1939, 10,000 in 1979 and 5,000 in 1995.<ref><!-- cite book --> Garcia, Ofelia and Joshua A. Fishman, ed. ''The Multilingual Apple: Language in New York City''. 2nd ed. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2002. (pg. 67) ISBN 3-11-017281-X</ref> According to the latest census, the Irish language ranks 66th out of the 322 languages spoken today in the U.S., with over 25,000 speakers. New York State has the most Irish Gaelic speakers, and Massachusetts the highest percentage, of the 50 states.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Irish Gaelic |url=http://www.usefoundation.org/userdata/file/Research/Languages/irish_gaelic.pdf |publisher=UseFoundation.org |date=2005-01-28 |accessdate=2009-06-30}}</ref> [[Daltaí na Gaeilge]], a nonprofit Gaelic language advocacy group based in [[Elberon, New Jersey]], estimated that about 30,000 speak the language as of 2006. This, the organization claimed, has seen an increase from only a few thousand at the time of its founding in 1981.<ref>{{Cite news|last= Gray|first= Patricia Bellew |title='Tis True: Irish Gaelic Still Charms |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803EEDF1031F931A25750C0A9609C8B63 |work=[[The New York Times]] |page= |pages= |date=2006-04-12 |accessdate=2009-06-30}}</ref>

===Occupations===
{{Celts and Modern Celts sidebar}}
Before 1800 Irish Protestant immigrants became farmers; many headed to the frontier where land was cheap or free and it was easier to start a farm or herding operation.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}}

After 1840 most Irish Catholic immigrants went directly to the cities, mill towns, and railroad or canal construction sites in the east coast. In upstate New York, the Great Lakes area, the Midwest and the Far West, many became farmers or ranchers.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} In the East, male Irish laborers were hired by Irish contractors to work on canals, railroads, streets, sewers and other construction projects, particularly in [[New York|New York state]] and [[New England]].{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} Large numbers{{weasel-inline|date=January 2011}}{{who|date=January 2011}} moved to New England mill towns, such as [[Holyoke, Massachusetts|Holyoke]], [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]], [[Taunton, Massachusetts|Taunton]], [[Brockton, Massachusetts|Brockton]], [[Fall River, Massachusetts|Fall River]], and [[Milford, Massachusetts|Milford]], [[Massachusetts]], where owners of textile mills welcomed the new low-wage workers.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} They took the jobs previously held by [[Yankee]] women known as [[Lowell girls]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} A large fraction of Irish Catholic women took jobs as maids in hotels and private households.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}}

Large numbers of unemployed or very poor Irish Catholics lived in squalid conditions in the new city slums and tenements.<ref name="yale">{{Cite web| url = http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1021.htm | title = The Sanitary and Moral Condition of New York City | publisher = Yale University | accessdate = 2008-04-13}}</ref> The Irish were the poorest of all immigrant groups that arrived in the United States in the nineteenth century, and many women especially suffered as a result of being abandoned or widowed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=107–108}}</ref> Consequently, there were many cases of mental and physical illnesses, as well as alcohol abuse and instances of crime, among women of Irish neighborhoods.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=109–110, 114}}</ref>

Single, Irish immigrant women quickly assumed jobs in high demand but for very low pay. The majority of them worked in mills, factories, and private households and were considered the bottommost group in the female job hierarchy, alongside African American women. Workers considered mill work in cotton textiles and needle trades the least desirable because of the dangerous and unpleasant conditions. Factory work was primarily a worst case scenario for widows or daughters of families already involved in the industry.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=72, 74–76}}</ref> Unlike many other immigrants, Irish women preferred domestic work because it was constantly in great demand among middle- and upper-class American households.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=84}}</ref> Although wages differed across the country, they were consistently higher than those of the other occupations available to Irish women and could often be negotiated because of the lack of competition. Also, the working conditions in well-off households were significantly better than those of factories or mills, and free room and board allowed domestic servants to save money or send it back to their families in Ireland.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=90–93}}</ref>

Despite some of the benefits of domestic work, Irish women’s job requirements were difficult and demeaning. Subject to their employers around the clock, Irish women cooked, cleaned, babysat and more. Because most servants lived in the home where they worked, they were separated from their communities. Most of all, the American stigma on domestic work suggested that Irish women were failures who had “about the same intelligence as that of an old grey-headed negro.” This quote illustrates how, in a period of extreme [[Racism in the United States|racism]] towards African Americans, society similarly viewed Irish immigrants as inferior beings.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=92}}</ref>

Although the Irish Catholics started very low on the social status scale, by 1900, they had jobs and earnings about equal on average to their neighbors.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} After 1945, the Catholic Irish consistently ranked toward the top of the social hierarchy, thanks especially to their high rate of college attendance.<ref name="greeley1988">Greeley (1988), p. 1.</ref>

====Police====
After the early example of [[Charles Lynch (jurist)|Charles Lynch]], Irish immigrants quickly found employment in the police departments, fire departments and other public services of major cities, largely in the North East and around the Great Lakes. By 1855, according to New York Police Commissioner [[George W. Matsell]], himself an Englishman having been born in [[Liverpool, England]] in 1806, almost 17 percent of the police department's officers were Irish-born (compared to 28.2 percent of the city) in a report to the [[New York City Council|Board of Alderman]].<ref>James Lardner, and Thomas Reppetto. ''NYPD: A City and Its Police''. (2000)</ref> In the 1860s more than half of those arrested in New York City were Irish born or of Irish descent but nearly half of the City's law enforcement officers were also Irish. By the turn of the 20th century, five out of six NYPD officers were Irish born or of Irish descent.  As late as 1960s, even after minority hiring efforts, 42% of the NYPD were Irish Americans.<ref>Richard Bessel, and Clive Emsley. ''Patterns of Provocation: Police and Public Disorder''. (2000) p. 87</ref>

Irish Catholics continue to be prominent in the law enforcement community, especially in New England. When the [[Emerald Society]] of the [[Boston Police Department]] was formed in 1973, half of the city's police officers became members.

====Teachers====
Towards the end of the 19th century, schoolteaching became the most desirable occupation for the second generation of female Irish immigrants. Teaching was similar to domestic work for the first generation of Irish immigrants in that it was a popular job and one that relied on women’s decision to remain unmarried.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=96}}</ref> The disproportionate number of Irish-American Catholic women who entered the job market as teachers in the late 19th century and early 20th century from Boston to San Francisco resulted from the Irish [[National school (Ireland)|National school]] system. Irish schools prepared young single women to support themselves in a new country, which inspired them to instill the importance of education, college training, and a profession in their American-born daughters even more than in their sons. Evidence from schools in New York City illustrate the upward trend of Irish women as teachers; “as early as 1870, twenty percent of all schoolteachers were Irish women, and...by 1890 Irish females comprised two-thirds of those in the Sixth Ward schools.” Irish women attained admirable reputations as schoolteachers, which enabled some to pursue professions of even higher stature.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=97–99}}</ref>

====Nuns====
Upon arrival in the United States, many Irish women became [[Nun|Catholic nuns]] and participated in the many American sisterhoods, especially those in [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] in Missouri, [[St. Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] in Minnesota, and [[Troy, New York|Troy]] in New York. Additionally, the women who settled in these communities were often sent back to Ireland to recruit. This kind of religious lifestyle appealed to Irish female immigrants because they outnumbered their male counterparts and the Irish cultural tendency to postpone marriage often promoted gender separation and celibacy. Furthermore, “The Catholic church, clergy, and women religious were highly respected in Ireland,” making the sisterhoods particularly attractive to Irish immigrants.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coburn|first=Carol K.|title=Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836–1920|year=1999|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|pages=87–89}}</ref> Nuns provided extensive support for Irish immigrants in large cities, especially in fields such as nursing and teaching but also through orphanages, widows’ homes, and housing for young, single women in domestic work.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coburn|first=Carol K|title=Spirited Lives|pages=210–211}}</ref> Although many Irish communities built parish schools run by nuns, the majority of Irish parents in large cities in the East enrolled their children in the public school system, where daughters or granddaughters of Irish immigrants had already established themselves as teachers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coburn|first=Carol K|title=Spirited Lives|pages=140–141}}</ref>

==Religion==
Religion has been important to the Irish American identity in America, and continues to play a major role in their communities.  Irish Americans today are both Catholic and Protestant.  The Protestants' ancestors arrived primarily in the colonial era, while Catholics are primarily descended from immigrants of the 19th century.  Irish leaders have been prominent in the Catholic Church in the United States for over 150 years.  The Irish have been leaders in the [[Presbyterian]] and [[Methodism#United_States|Methodist]] traditions, as well.<ref name=carroll>Michael P. Carroll, "How The Irish Became Protestant In America" ''Religion and American Culture'' 2006 16(1): 25–54.</ref>

Surveys in the 1990s show that of Americans who identify themselves as "Irish", 51% said they were Protestant and 36% Catholic.  In the South, Protestants account for 73% of those claiming Irish origins, while Catholics account for 19%.  In the North, 45% of those claiming Irish origin are Catholic, while 39% are Protestant.<ref>13% of the Irish gave "other" or "none" for religion. Michael P. Carroll, "How The Irish Became Protestant In America", ''Religion and American Culture'' 2006 16(1): 25–54.</ref>

===Irish Catholic and Irish Protestant relations===
{{details|Orange Institution}}
Between 1607 and 1820, the majority of emigrants from Ireland to America had been Protestants<ref>{{cite book | last = Brighton | first = Stephen A.| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Historical Archaeology of the Irish Diaspora: A Transnational Approach| publisher=University of Tennessee Press| date = 2009 |  page = 41 | isbn = 978-1572336674}}</ref> who were described simply as "Irish".<ref>{{cite book | last = Falley | first = Margaret Dicknson| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research: A Guide to the Genealogical Records | publisher=Genealogical Publishing Company| date = 1995 |  page = 12 | isbn = 978-0806309163}}</ref> The religious distinction became important after 1820,<ref>{{cite book | last = McCaffrey | first = Lawrence John| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America| publisher=Catholic University of America Press| date = 1998 |  page = 5 | isbn = 978-0813208961}}</ref> when large numbers of Irish Catholics began to emigrate to the United States.  The descendants of the colonial Irish Protestant settlers from [[Ulster]] began thereafter to redefine themselves as "Scotch Irish", to stress their historic origins, and distanced themselves from Irish Catholics.<ref>"This growing 'division of the mind' between Irish Catholics and Protestants is often noted by Irish historians," reports David T. Gleeson, "'Scotch Irish' and 'Real Irish' in the Nineteenth-century American South", ''New Hibernia Review'' 10.2 (2006) 68–91</ref> By 1830, Irish diaspora demographics had changed rapidly, with over 60% of all Irish settlers in the US being Catholics from rural areas of Ireland.<ref>{{cite book | last = Brighton | first = Stephen A.| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Historical Archaeology of the Irish Diaspora: A Transnational Approach| publisher=University of Tennessee Press| date = 2009 |  page = 43 | isbn = 978-1572336674}}</ref>

Some Protestant Irish immigrants became active in explicitly anti-Catholic organizations such as the [[Orange Institution]] and the [[American Protective Association]].  However, participation in the Orange Institution was never as large in the United States as it was in Canada.<ref>Kerby A. Millar, ''Emigrants and Exiles'', Oxford University Press, USA (1988), pg 191.</ref>  In the early nineteenth century, the post-Revolutionary republican spirit of the new United States attracted exiled [[United Irishmen]] such as [[Wolfe Tone|Theobald Wolf Tone]] and others.<ref>Kerby A. Millar, ''Emigrants and Exiles'', Oxford University Press, USA (1988), pg 186.</ref>  Most Protestant Irish immigrants in the first several decades of the nineteenth century were those who held to the republicanism of the 1790s, and who were unable to accept Orangeism.  Loyalists and Orangemen made up a minority of Irish Protestant immigrants to the United States during this period.  Most of the Irish loyalist emigration was bound for [[Upper Canada]] and the Canadian [[Maritime provinces]], where Orange lodges were able to flourish under the British flag.<ref>Kerby A. Millar, ''Emigrants and Exiles'', Oxford University Press, USA (1988), pg 191.</ref>

By 1870, when there were about 930 Orange lodges in the Canadian province of Ontario, there were only 43 in the entire eastern United States.  These few American lodges were founded by newly arriving Protestant Irish immigrants in coastal cities such as Philadelphia and New York.<ref>Donald McRaild, ''Faith, Fraternity, and Fighting'', Liverpool University Press (2005), pg. 298.</ref>  These ventures were short-lived and of limited political and social impact, although there were specific instances of violence involving Orangemen between Catholic and Protestant Irish immigrants, such as the [[Orange Riots]] in New York City in 1824, 1870 and 1871.<ref>{{Cite web
  | last = McRaild
  | first = Donald
  | title = The Orange Order, Militant Protestantism and anti-Catholicism: A Bibliographical Essay
  | url=http://ics01.ds.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=ids&folder=16&paper=19
  | accessdate = 23 October 2010 }}</ref>

The first "Orange riot" on record was in 1824, in Abingdon, NY, resulting from a 12 July march.  Several Orangemen were arrested and found guilty of inciting the riot.  According to the State prosecutor in the court record, "the Orange celebration was until then unknown in the country".  The immigrants involved were admonished: "In the United States the oppressed of all nations find an asylum, and all that is asked in return is that they become law-abiding citizens.  Orangemen, Ribbonmen, and United Irishmen are alike unknown.  They are all entitled to protection by the laws of the country."<ref>"History of the Orange Riots in New York", ''[[The New York Times]]'' (July 12, 1871).</ref>

The later Orange riots of 1870 and 1871 killed nearly 70 people, and were fought out between Irish Protestant and Catholic immigrants.  After this the activities of the Orange Order were banned for a time, the Order dissolved, and most members joined Masonic Orders.  After 1871, there were no more riots between Irish Catholics and Protestants.<ref>Michael Gordon, ''The Orange Riots: Irish Political Violence in New York City, 1870 and 1871'', Cornell University Press (1993), pg 221.</ref>

America offered a new beginning, and "...most descendents of the Ulster Presbyterians of the eighteenth century and even many new Protestant Irish immigrants turned their backs on all associations with Ireland and melted into the American Protestant mainstream."<ref>Timothy Meagher, ''The Columbia Guide to Irish American History'', Columbia University Press (2005), pgs 91–92.</ref>

===Catholics===
Irish priests (especially Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Capuchins) came to the large cities of the East in the 1790s, and when new dioceses were erected in 1808 the [[R. Luke Concanen|first bishop of New York]] was an Irishman in recognition of the contribution of the early Irish clergy.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Thomas T. |last=McAvoy |title=The Irish Clergyman in the United States |journal=American Catholic Studies |year=1964 |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=6–38 |doi= }}</ref>

In Boston 1810–40 there had been serious tensions between the bishop and the laity who wanted to control the local parishes. By 1845 the Catholic population in Boston had increased to 30,000 from around 5,000 in 1825, due to the influx of Irish immigrants. With the appointment of John B. Fitzpatrick as bishop in 1845 tensions subsided as the increasingly Irish Catholic community grew to support Fitzpatrick's assertion of the bishop's control of parish government.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Ronald D. |last=Patkus |title=Conflict in the Church and the City: The Problem of Catholic Parish Government in Boston, 1790–1865 |journal=Historical Journal of Massachusetts |year=2001 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=53–76 |doi= }}</ref>

In New York, Archbishop [[John Hughes (archbishop)|John Hughes]] (1797–1864), an Irish immigrant himself, was deeply involved in "the Irish question"—[[Irish nationalism|Irish independence from British rule]]. Hughes supported [[Daniel O'Connell]]'s Catholic emancipation movement in Ireland, but rejected such radical and violent societies as the Young Irelanders and the National Brotherhood. Hughes also disapproved of American Irish radical fringe groups, urging immigrants to assimilate themselves into American life while remaining patriotic to Ireland 'only individually.'{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} In Hughes's view, a large-scale movement to form Irish settlements in the western United States was too isolationist and ultimately detrimental to immigrants' success in the New World.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Charles P. |last=Connor |title=Archbishop Hughes and the Question of Ireland, 1829–1862 |journal=Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia |year=1984 |volume=95 |issue=1–4 |pages=15–26 |doi= }}</ref>

In the 1840s, Hughes crusaded for public funded Irish Schools modeled after the successful Irish Public School System in  [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} Hughes denounced the Public School Society of New York as an extension of an Old-World struggle whose outcome was directed not by understanding of the basic problems but, rather, by mutual mistrust and violently inflamed emotions. For Irish Catholics, the motivation lay largely memory of British oppression, while their antagonists were dominated by the English Protestant historic phobia against papal interference in civil affairs. Because of the vehemence of this quarrel, the New York Legislature passed the Maclay Act in 1842, giving New York City an elective Board of Education empowered to build and supervise schools and distribute the education fund—but with the proviso that none of the money should go to the schools which taught religion. Hughes responded by building an elaborate [[parochial school]] system that stretched to the college level, setting a policy followed in other large cities. Efforts to get city or state funding failed because of vehement Protestant opposition to a system that rivaled the public schools.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Joseph J. |last=McCadden |title=New York's School Crisis of 1840–1842: Its Irish Antecedents |journal=Thought |year=1966 |volume=41 |issue=163 |pages=561–588 |doi= }}</ref>

[[Jesuits]] established a network of colleges in major cities, including Boston College, Fordham in New York, and Georgetown. Boston College was established in 1863 to appeal to urban Irish Catholics. It offered a rather limited intellectual curriculum, however, the priests at Boston College prioritizing spiritual and sacramental activities over intellectual pursuits. One consequence was that Harvard Law School would not admit Boston College graduates to its law school. Fordham, by contrast, was founded in 1841 and built a science building in 1886, lending more legitimacy to science in the curriculum there.  In addition, a three-year bachelor of science degree was created.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Raymond A. |last=Schroth |title=S.J. Fordham: A History and Memoir |edition=Revised |publisher=Fordham University Press |location=New York |year=2008 |isbn=0823229777 }}</ref>   Modern Jesuit leadership in academia spread was not to became their hallmark across all institutions until the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Marianne |last=Gallagher |title=The Jesuits at Boston College in the Late Nineteenth Century |journal=American Catholic Studies |year=2007 |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=43–66 |doi= }}</ref>

The Irish became prominent in the leadership of the Catholic Church in the U.S. by the 1850s—by 1890 there were 7.3 million Catholics in the U.S. and growing, and most bishops were Irish.<ref>Kenny (2000), pp 74–5, 163–71</ref> As late as the 1970s, when Irish were 17% of American Catholics, they were 35% of the priests and 50% of the bishops, together with a similar proportion of presidents of Catholic colleges and hospitals.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Andrew M. |last=Greeley |title=That Most Distressful Nation: The Taming of the American Irish |year=1972 |location= |publisher= |page=264 |isbn=0812962192 }}</ref>

===Protestants===
The Scotch-Irish who settled in the back country of colonial America were largely [[Presbyterian]]s.<ref>Leyburn, James G., ''The Scotch-Irish:  A Social History'', University of North Carolina Press, 1962, pg 273.</ref>  The establishment of many settlements in the remote back-country put a strain on the ability of the Presbyterian Church to meet the new demand for qualified, college-educated clergy.<ref name=Griffin-164>Griffin, Patrick, ''The People with No Name:  Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World'', Princeton University Press, 2001, pp 164–165.</ref>  Religious groups such as the [[Baptists]] and [[Methodist]]s had no higher education requirement for their clergy to be ordained, and these groups readily provided ministers to meet the demand of the growing Scotch-Irish settlements.<ref name=Griffin-164/>  By about 1810, Baptist and Methodist churches were in the majority, and the descendants of the Scotch-Irish today remain predominantly Baptist or Methodist.<ref>James Leyburn, The Scotch-Irish, Univ of North Carolina (1962), p. 295.</ref>  They were avid participants in the revivals taking place during the [[Great Awakening]] from the 1740s to the 1840s.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}   They take pride in their Irish heritage because they identify with the values ascribed to the Scotch-Irish who played a major role in the American Revolution and in the development of American culture.<ref name=carroll/>  The strongly held religious beliefs of the Scotch-Irish led to the emergence of the [[Bible Belt]], where [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] Protestantism continues to play a large role today.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

====Presbyterians====
[[New Light]] Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey, later renamed [[Princeton University]], in 1746 in order to train ministers dedicated to their views. The college was the educational and religious capital of Scotch-Irish America.<ref>James G. Leyburn, ''The Scotch-Irish: A Social History'' 91989) p. 285</ref>  By 1808, loss of confidence in the college within the Presbyterian Church led to the establishment of the separate [[Princeton Theological Seminary]], but deep Presbyterian influence at the college continued through the 1910s, as typified by university president [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>Thomas J. Wertenbaker,  "The College of New Jersey and the Presbyterian Church", ''Journal of Presbyterian History'' 1998 76(1): 31–35</ref>

Out on the frontier, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Muskingum Valley in Ohio established the [[Muskingum College]] at New Concord in 1837. It was led by two clergymen, Samuel Wilson and Benjamin Waddle, who served as trustees, president, and professors during the first few years. During the 1840s and 1850s the college survived the rapid turnover of very young presidents who used the post as a stepping stone in their clerical careers, and in the late 1850s it weathered a storm of student protest. Under the leadership of L. B. W. Shryock during the Civil War, Muskingum gradually evolved from a local and locally controlled institution to one serving the entire Muskingum Valley. It is still affiliated with the Presbyterian church.<ref>William L. Fisk, "The Early Years Of Muskingum College", ''Old Northwest'' 1979 5(1): 19–44</ref>

Brought up in a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian home, [[Cyrus McCormick]] of Chicago developed a strong sense of devotion to the Presbyterian Church. Throughout his later life he used the wealth gained through invention of the reaper to further the work of the church. His benefactions were responsible for the establishment in Chicago of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest (after his death renamed the [[McCormick Theological Seminary]] of the Presbyterian Church). He assisted the [[Union Presbyterian Seminary]] in Richmond, Virginia. He also supported a series of religious publications, beginning with the ''Presbyterian Expositor'' in 1857 and ending with the ''Interior'' (later called ''The Continent''), which his widow continued until her death.<ref>John Frederick Lyons, "Cyrus Hall McCormick, Presbyterian Layman", ''Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society'' 1961 39(1): 14–29</ref>

==Discrimination==
[[Image:Nina3.jpg|thumb|upright|1862 song that used the "No Irish Need Apply" slogan. It was copied from a similar London song.<ref name="jensen">{{Cite journal|last=Jensen |first=Richard |year=2002 |month= |title='No Irish Need Apply': A Myth of Victimization |journal=Journal of Social History |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=405–429 |url=http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/no-irish.htm |accessdate=2008-11-07 |quote= |doi=10.1353/jsh.2003.0021}}</ref>]]

Catholics and Protestants kept their distance; intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants was uncommon, and strongly discouraged by both ministers and priests.<ref>"Mixed marriages", as they were called, were allowed in rare cases, were warned against repeatedly, and were uncommon; Jay P. Dolan, ''The American Catholic Experience'' (1985) p. 228</ref>

After the large influx of Irish in the middle of the 19th century, many Catholic children were being educated in public schools.  While officially [[nondenominational]], the [[King James Version]] of the Bible was widely used in the classroom across the country, which Catholics were forbidden to read.<ref>According to Canon Law, Catholics were prohibited from reading Bibles published by non-Catholics. Charles Augustine, ''A Commentary on the New Code of Canon Law'' (1921) v. 6 p. 467</ref>  Many Irish children complained that Catholicism was openly mocked in the classroom.  In New York City the curriculum vividly portrayed Catholics, and specifically the Irish, as villainous.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/innovators/hughes.html |title=John Joseph Hughes (1797-1864) |date=2001 |work=SCHOOL: The Story of American Public Education |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS.org]] |accessdate=27 June 2011}}</ref>  The Catholic clergyman [[John Hughes (archbishop)|John Hughes]] campaigned for public funding of [[History of Catholic education in the United States|Catholic education]] in response to the bigotry.  While never successful in obtaining public money for private education, the debate with the city's Protestant elite spurred by Hughes' passionate campaign paved the way for the secularization of public education nationwide.  In addition, [[Roman Catholic universities and colleges in the United States|Catholic higher education]] expanded during this period with colleges and universities that evolved into such institutions as [[Fordham University]] and [[Boston College]] providing alternatives to Irish who were not otherwise permitted to apply to other colleges.

Prejudice against Irish Catholics in the US reached a peak in the mid-1850s with the [[Know Nothing]] Movement, which tried to oust Catholics from public office.  After a year of two of local success, the Know Nothing Party vanished.<ref> Dolan, ''The Irish Americans'' (2008) pp 97-98</ref>

[[Image:NINA-nyt.JPG|thumb|left|''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' want ad 1854—the only ''New York Times'' ad with NINA for men.]]
After 1860—and well into the 20th century Protestants refused to hire them;  "HELP WANTED - NO IRISH NEED APPLY" was in operation. They called these "the NINA signs".{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} NINA signs were common in London in the early 19th century, and the memory of this discrimination in [[Great Britain|Britain]] was imported to the US.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}  After 1860 the Irish sang songs (see illustration) about NINA signs. Some historians, however, maintain that actual job discrimination was minimal.<ref name="jensen"/>

Many Irish work gangs were hired by contractors to build canals, railroads, city streets and sewers across the country.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} In the South they underbid slave labor.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}  One result was that small cities that served as railroad centers came to have large Irish populations.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

===Stereotypes===
Irish Catholics were popular targets for stereotyping in the 19th century. According to historian George Potter, the media often stereotyped the Irish in America as being boss-controlled, violent (both among themselves and with those of other ethnic groups), voting illegally, prone to [[alcoholism]], and dependent on street gangs that were often violent or criminal. Potter quotes contemporary newspaper images:

{{quotation|"You will scarcely ever find an Irishman dabbling in counterfeit money, or breaking into houses, or swindling; but if there is any fighting to be done, he is very apt to have a hand in it." Even though Pat might "'meet with a friend and for love knock him down,'" noted a Montreal paper, the fighting usually resulted from a sudden excitement, allowing there was "but little 'malice prepense' in his whole composition." The ''Catholic Telegraph'' of Cincinnati in 1853, saying that the "name of 'Irish' has become identified in the minds of many, with almost every species of outlawry," distinguished the Irish vices as "not of a deep malignant nature," arising rather from the "transient burst of undisciplined passion," like "drunk, disorderly, fighting, etc., not like robbery, cheating, swindling, counterfeiting, slandering, calumniating, blasphemy, using obscene language, &c."<ref name="potter526">Potter (1960), p. 526.</ref>}}

The Irish had many humorists of their own, but were scathingly attacked in political cartoons, especially those in [[Puck (magazine)|''Puck'']] magazine from the 1870s to 1900. In addition, the cartoons of [[Thomas Nast]] were especially hostile; for example, he depicted the Irish-dominated [[Tammany Hall]] machine in New York City as a ferocious tiger.<ref name="NDE">{{Cite web| url = http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/irish/unit_2.html | title = Irish Famine: Racism | publisher = Nebraska Department of Education | accessdate = 2008-04-14 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080331000610/http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/irish/unit_2.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = 2008-03-31}}</ref>

The stereotyope of the Irish as violent drunks has lasted well beyond its high point in the mid-19th century. For example, President [[Richard Nixon]] once told advisor [[Charles Colson]] that “[t]he Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish.”<ref>[[Adam Nagourney|Nagourney, Adam]] (2010-12-10) [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/us/politics/11nixon.html?_r=2&hp In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks], ''[[The New York Times]]''</ref>

Discrimination of Irish Americans differed depending on gender. For example, Irish women were sometimes stereotyped as "reckless breeders" because of American Protestants' fears of the growing number of Irish Catholic babies. Many native-born Americans claimed that "their incessant childbearing [would] ensure an Irish political takeover of American cities [and that] Catholicism would become the reigning faith of the hitherto Protestant nation."<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|page=62}}</ref> Irish men were also targeted but in a different way than women were. The difference between the Irish female "Bridget" and the Irish male "Pat" was distinct; while she was impulsive but fairly harmless, he was "always drunk, eternally fighting, lazy, and shiftless." In contrast to the view that Irish women were shiftless, slovenly, and stupid (like their male counterparts), girls were said to be "industrious, willing, cheerful, and honest—they work hard, and they are very strictly moral."<ref>{{cite web|title=Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th Century|url=http://www.kinsella.org/history/histira.htm|work=The Kinsella Homepage|accessdate=17 April 2011}}</ref>

Americans believed that Irish men, not women, were primarily responsible for any problems that arose in the family. Even Irish people themselves viewed Irish men as the cause of family disintegration while women were “pillars of strength” that could uplift their families out of poverty and into the middle class.<ref>{{cite book|last=Diner|first=Hasia R|title=Erin's Daughters|pages=66–67}}</ref> In this sense, Irish women were similar to their American counterparts as mothers with moral authority.

==Sense of heritage==
[[File:San patricios flag.jpg|thumb|Irish-American Flag<ref>Smith, W. Flags through the Ages and across the World, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1975.</ref><ref>Znamierowski, A. The World Encyclopedia of Flags, Lorenz Books, 1999, 2007.</ref>]]
[[Image:Southie Mural.JPG|thumb|[[Irish Republican]] mural in [[South Boston]], Massachusetts.]]
Many people Irish descent retain a sense of their Irish heritage.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} A sense of exile, [[Irish diaspora|diaspora]], and (in the case of songs) even nostalgia is a common theme.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} The term "[[Plastic Paddy]]", meaning someone who was not born in Ireland and who is separated from his closest Irish-born ancestor by several generations, but who still thinks of himself as "Irish," is occasionally used in a derogatory fashion towards Irish Americans.<ref>{{Cite web
| date = 2006-03-17
| title = Erin Go ARGH! The case against St. Patrick’s Day. (And, no, I’m not British.)
| author = Alex Massie
| url = http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/massie200603170817.asp
}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite web| date = | author = Michelle Byrne | title =  Are you a plastic Paddy? | url = http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-17050544-are-you-a-plastic-paddy.do }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/boxingandmma/5496836/Dan-Hardys-UFC-clash-with-Marcus-Davis-set-to-produce-fireworks.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Dan Hardy's UFC clash with Marcus Davis set to produce fireworks | first=Gareth A | last=Davies | date=2009-06-10 | accessdate=2010-05-05}}</ref> The term is freely applied to relevant people of all nationalities, not solely Irish Americans.

Many{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} Irish Americans were enthusiastic supporters of Irish independence; the [[Fenian Brotherhood]] movement was based in the United States and in the late 1860s launched several unsuccessful attacks on British-controlled Canada known as the "[[Fenian Raids]]".{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} The [[Provisional IRA]] received significant funding for its paramilitary activities from a group of Irish American supporters—in 1984, the [[United States Department of Justice|US Department of Justice]] won a court case forcing the Irish American fund raising organization [[NORAID]] to acknowledge the Provisional IRA as its ''"foreign principal"''.<ref name="CAIN">{{Cite web| first= Andrew J | last=Wilson | url = http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/wilson95.htm | title = The Congressional Friends of Ireland and the Anglo-Irish Agreement, 1981–1985 | publisher = Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) | accessdate = 2008-04-14}}</ref>

===Cities===
[[Image:Irish Population 1872.jpg|thumb|left|Population density of people born in Ireland, 1870; these were mostly Catholics; the older Scots Irish immigration is not shown.]]Irish Catholic Americans settled in large and small cities throughout the North, particularly railroad centers and mill towns. They became perhaps the most urbanized group in America, as few became farmers.<ref>Kenny (2000) p 105–6</ref> Areas that retain a significant Irish American population include the metropolitan areas of [[Boston]], [[Hartford]], [[Pittsburgh]], [[Philadelphia]], [[Baltimore]], [[New York City]], [[Chicago]], and [[San Francisco]], where most new arrivals of the 1830–1910 period settled. As a percentage of the population, Massachusetts is the most Irish state, with about a quarter of the population claiming Irish descent.<ref>{{Cite web |author=United States Census Bureau |authorlink=United States Census Bureau |title=Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St. Patrick’s Day (March 17): 2009 |url=http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/013130.html |work=Facts for Features & Special Editions |publisher=US Census Bureau Press Releases |date=2009-01-05 |accessdate=1 July 2009}}{{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> The most Irish American towns in the United States are [[Scituate, Massachusetts]] with 47.5% of its residents being of Irish descent, [[Evergreen Park, Illinois]], with 39.6% of its 19,236 residents being of Irish descent,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.city-data.com/city/Evergreen-Park-Illinois.html |title=Evergreen Park, Illinois |publisher=City-data.com |accessdate=27 June 2011}}</ref>[[Milton, Massachusetts]], with 38% of its 26,000 being of Irish descent and [[Braintree, Massachusetts]] with 36% of its 34,000 being of Irish descent. Boston, New York, and Chicago have neighborhoods with higher percentages of Irish American residents. Regionally, the most Irish American states are Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. In consequence of its unique history as a mining center, [[Butte, Montana]] is also one of the country's most thoroughly Irish American cities. [[Greeley, Nebraska]] (population 527) has the highest percentage of Irish American residents (43%) of any town or city with a population of over 500 in the United States. The town was part of the Irish Catholic Colonization effort of Bishop O'Connor of New York in the 1880s.

==Irish in politics and government==
{{Ref improve section|date=December 2009}}
[[File:Charlescarrollofcarrollton.jpg|250px|thumb|right|[[Charles Carroll of Carrollton|Charles Carroll]], signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, was the descendant of Irish nobility in County Tipperarry.]]
The [[United States Declaration of Independence]] contained fifty-six delegate signatures.  Of the signers, eight were of Irish descent. Three signers, [[Matthew Thornton]], [[George Taylor (delegate)|George Taylor]] and [[James Smith (delegate)|James Smith]] were born in Ireland, the remaining five Irish Americans were the sons or grandsons of Irish immigrants: [[George Read (U.S. statesman)|George Read]], [[Thomas McKean]], [[Thomas Lynch, Jr.]], [[Edward Rutledge]] and [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton|Charles Carroll]].  The secretary, also Irish American, though not a delegate signed as well: [[Charles Thompson]].  The Constitution of the United States was created by [[Philadelphia Convention|a convention]] of thirty-six delegates.  Of these as least six were Irish American. George Read and Thomas McKean had already worked on the Declaration, and were joined by [[John Rutledge]], [[Pierce Butler]], [[Daniel Carroll]], and [[Thomas Fitzsimons]]. The Carrolls and Fitzsimmons were Catholic, the remainder Protestant denominations.
[[File:Andrew Jackson.jpg|250px|thumb|left|[[Andrew Jackson]] was the son of Irish immigrants, and became the seventh President of the United States in 1829]]
After the early example of [[Charles Lynch (jurist)|Charles Lynch]], the Catholic Irish moved rapidly into law enforcement, built hundreds of schools, colleges, orphanages, hospitals, and asylums. Political opposition to the Catholic Irish climaxed in 1854 in the short-lived [[Know Nothing Party]].

By the 1850s, the Irish Catholics were already a major presence in the police departments of large cities.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} In New York City in 1855, of the city's 1,149 policemen, 305 were natives of Ireland.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} Both Boston's police and fire departments provided many Irish immigrants with their first jobs. The creation of a unified police force in Philadelphia opened the door to the Irish in that city.  By 1860 in Chicago, 49 of the 107 on the police force were Irish. Chief O'Leary headed the police force in New Orleans and Malachi Fallon was chief of police of San Francisco.<ref name="potter530">Potter (1960), p. 530</ref>

The Irish Catholic diaspora are very well organized,{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} and, since 1850, have produced a majority of the leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church, labor unions, the Democratic Party in larger cities, and Catholic high schools, colleges and universities.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} [[John F. Kennedy]] was their greatest political hero.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} [[Al Smith]], who lost to [[Herbert Hoover]] in the [[United States presidential election, 1928|1928 presidential election]], was the first Irish Catholic to run for president. From the 1830s to the 1960s, Irish Catholics voted 80–95% [[Democratic Party in the United States|Democratic]], with occasional exceptions like the [[election of 1920]]. Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]], who inspired the term "[[McCarthyism]]", is a very notable [[Republican Party in the United States|Republican]] exception to the Irish-American connection with the Democratic Party.

Today, Irish politicians are associated with both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. [[Ronald Reagan]] boasted of his Irishness ). Historically, Irish Catholics controlled many city machines and often served as chairmen of the Democratic National Committee, including [[County Monaghan]] native [[Thomas Taggart]], Vance McCormick, [[James Farley]], [[Edward J. Flynn]], [[Robert E. Hannegan]], [[J. Howard McGrath]], William H. Boyle, Jr., [[John Moran Bailey]], [[Larry O'Brien]], [[Christopher J. Dodd]], [[Terry McAuliffe]] and [[Tim Kaine]]. Irish  in Congress are represented in both parties; currently [[Susan Collins]] of Maine, [[Pat Toomey]] of Pennsylvania, [[Bob Casey, Jr.]] of Pennsylvania, [[Lisa Murkowski]] of Alaska, [[Dick Durbin]] of Illinois, [[Patrick Leahy|Pat Leahy]] of Vermont, and [[Maria Cantwell]] of Washington are Irish Americans serving in the United States Senate. Exit polls show that in recent presidential elections Irish Catholics have split about 50–50 for Democratic and Republican candidates; large majorities voted for Ronald Reagan.<ref name="marlin">Marlin (2004), pp. 296–345</ref> The pro-life faction in the Democratic party includes many Irish Catholic politicians, such as the former [[Boston]] mayor and ambassador to the Vatican [[Ray Flynn]] and senator [[Bob Casey, Jr.]], who defeated Senator [[Rick Santorum]] in a high visibility race in Pennsylvania in 2006.<ref name="prendergast">Prendergast (1999), p. 1.</ref>

[[Image:Irish1346.gif|thumb|left|[[Maps of American ancestries|Distribution]] of Irish Americans according to the 2000 Census]]
In some states such as [[Connecticut]], the most heavily Irish communities now tend to be in the outer suburbs and generally support Republican candidates, such as [[New Fairfield]].

Many major cities have elected Irish American Catholic mayors. Indeed, [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], [[Baltimore, Maryland]], [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], [[Houston, Texas]], [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]], [[New York City]], [[Omaha, Nebraska]], [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]], [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]], [[Saint Louis, Missouri]], [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]], and [[San Francisco]] have all elected natives of Ireland as mayors. [[Chicago]], Boston, and [[Jersey City, New Jersey]] have had more Irish American mayors than any other ethnic group.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} The cities of [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], [[Oakland, California]], Omaha, St. Paul, Jersey City, [[Rochester, New York]], [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], [[Rockford, Illinois]], San Francisco, Scranton, [[Seattle]] and [[Syracuse, New York]] currently ({{As of|2006|lc=on}}) have Irish American mayors.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} Pittsburgh mayor [[Bob O'Connor (mayor)|Bob O'Connor]] died in office in 2006. New York City has had at least three Irish-born mayors and over eight Irish American mayors. The most recent one was [[County Mayo]] native [[William O'Dwyer]], elected in 1949.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}}

The Irish Protestant vote has not been studied nearly as much. Since the 1840s, it has been uncommon for a Protestant politician to be identified as Irish. In Canada, by contrast, Irish Protestants remained a cohesive political force well into the 20th century with many (but not all) belonging to the [[Orange Institution|Orange Order]]. Throughout the 19th century, sectarian confrontation was commonplace between Protestant Irish and Catholic Irish in Canadian cities.

===American Presidents with Irish ancestry===
{{POV|section|date=February 2011}}
{{Refimprove|section|date=February 2011}}
[[Image:JFK-John Barry Memorial.jpg|thumb|United States President [[John F. Kennedy]] laying a wreath at Commodore [[John Barry (naval officer)|John Barry]] Memorial in [[Wexford]], Ireland in 1963.]]
[[Image:President Reagan in Ballyporeen Ireland.jpg|thumb|United States President [[Ronald Reagan]] speaking to large crowd in his ancestral home in [[Ballyporeen]], Ireland in 1984.]]
A number of the Presidents of the United States have Irish origins.<ref name="irishpresidents">{{Cite web| url = http://irishamericanheritage.com/ProcWebPages/1995.htm | title = Irish-American History Month, 1995 | publisher = irishamericanheritage.com | accessdate = 2008-04-14}}</ref> The extent of Irish heritage varies. For example, [[Chester Arthur]]'s father and both of [[Andrew Jackson]]'s parents were Irish born, while [[George W. Bush]] has a rather distant Irish ancestry. [[Ronald Reagan]]'s father was of Irish ancestry,<ref>{{Cite news| date = September 6, 1981 | author = William Borders | url = http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/06/world/village-in-tipperary-is-cashing-in-on-ronald-reagan-s-roots.html?sec=travel <!-- old url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=980CE7DE103BF935A3575AC0A967948260 --> | title = Village in Tipperary is Cashing In on Ronald Reagan's Roots | newspaper = [[The New York Times]]  }}</ref> while his mother also had some Irish ancestors.  President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] had Irish lineage on both sides. Within this group, only Kennedy was raised as a practicing Roman Catholic. Current President [[Barack Obama]]'s Irish heritage originates from his [[Kansas]]-born mother, [[Ann Dunham]], whose ancestry is Irish and English. <ref name="The Presidents, Barack Obama">{{Cite web| url = http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/ | title = The Presidents, Barack Obama |publisher=American Heritage.com | accessdate = 2009-11-19 }}</ref> His [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Joe Biden]] is also an Irish-American.

;[[Andrew Jackson]]
: 7th President 1829–37: He was born in the predominantly Scotch-Irish<ref>"Waxhaws is the name still given to the district east of the Catawba River...  This entire region was occupied by Scots from Ireland."  Henry Alexander White, ''Southern Presbyterian Leaders 1683–1911'', Neale Publishing, (1911), pg 90; and "These [Waxhaw settlers] families were embedded in a much larger network of relations, a network stretching along the British-American periphery and across the Atlantic to Ulster...", Peter N. Moore, ''World of Toil and Strife: Community Transformation in Backcountry South Carolina, 1750–1805'', University of South Carolina Press (March 30, 2007), pg. 19; and "...the Waxhaws, a Scotch-Irish community near the Catawbas...", James Hart Merrell, ''The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors From European Contact Through the Era of Removal'', University of North Carolina Press (June 27, 1989), pg. 171.</ref> [[Waxhaws]] area of [[South Carolina]] two years after his parents left [[Boneybefore]], near [[Carrickfergus]] in [[County Antrim]]. A [[Andrew Jackson Centre|heritage centre in the village]] pays tribute to the legacy of 'Old Hickory', the People's President.  Andrew Jackson then moved to [[Tennessee]], where he served as Governor<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/|title=The Presidents, Andrew Jackson |publisher=American Heritage.com |accessdate=19 November 2009}}</ref>
;[[James Knox Polk]]
:11th President, 1845–49: His ancestors were among the first Ulster-Scots settlers, emigrating from [[Coleraine]] in 1680 to become a powerful political family in [[Mecklenburg County, North Carolina|Mecklenburg County]], [[North Carolina]]. He moved to [[Tennessee]] and became its governor before winning the presidency.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.ulsterscotsagency.com/fs/doc/new_range_of_ulster-scots_booklets/US_and_USA_Presidents_BK3_AW_6.pdf |title=Ulster-Scots and United States Presidents |last=Kennedy |first=B. |date=17 December 2009 |work= |publisher=[[Ulster-Scots Agency]] |accessdate=27 June 2011}}</ref>
;[[James Buchanan]]
:15th President, 1857–61: Born in a log cabin (which has been relocated to his old school in [[Mercersburg, Pennsylvania]]).  The Buchanans were originally from [[Deroran]], near [[Omagh]] in [[County Tyrone]] where the ancestral home still stands.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/>
;[[Andrew Johnson]]
:17th President, 1865–69: His grandfather left [[Mounthill]], near [[Larne]] in [[County Antrim]] around 1750 and settled in [[North Carolina]]. Andrew worked there as a tailor and ran a successful business in [[Greeneville, Tennessee|Greeneville]], [[Tennessee]], before being elected Vice President. He became President following [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s assassination.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/>
;[[Ulysses S. Grant]]
:18th President, 1869–77: The home of his maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson, at [[Dergenagh]], [[County Tyrone]], is the location for an exhibition on the eventful life of the victorious [[American Civil War|Civil War]] commander who later served two terms as President. Grant visited his ancestral homeland in 1878.<ref name="Ulter Scots Agency">{{Cite web|url= http://www.ulsterscotsagency.com/fs/doc/new_range_of_ulster-scots_booklets/US_and_USA_Presidents_BK3_AW_6.pdf|title=Ulster-Scots and the United States Presidents |publisher=Ulter Scots Agency |accessdate=12 July 2010}}</ref>
;[[Chester A. Arthur]]
:21st President, 1881–85: His election was the start of a quarter-century in which the White House was occupied by men of Ulster-Scots origins. His family left [[Dreen]], near [[Cullybackey]], [[County Antrim]], in 1815. There is now an interpretive centre, alongside the Arthur Ancestral Home, devoted to his life and times.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/><ref>Northern Ireland Tourist Board. [http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Arthur-Cottage-Cullybackey-Ballymena-P8218 ''discovernorthernireland - explore more: Arthur Cottage''] Accessed 3 March 2010. "Arthur Cottage, situated in the heart of County Antrim, only a short walk from the village of Cullybackey is the ancestral home of Chester Alan Arthur, the 21st President of the USA."</ref>
;[[Grover Cleveland]]
:22nd and 24th President, 1885–89 and 1893–97: Born in [[New Jersey]], he was the maternal grandson of merchant Abner Neal, who emigrated from [[County Antrim]] in the 1790s. He is the only president to have served non-consecutive terms.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/>
;[[Benjamin Harrison]]
:23rd President, 1889–93: His mother, Elizabeth Irwin, had Ulster-Scots roots through her two great-grandfathers, James Irwin and William McDowell. Harrison was born in [[Ohio]] and served as a brigadier general in the [[Union Army]] before embarking on a career in [[Indiana]] politics which led to the White House.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/><ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/|title=The Presidents, Benjamin Harrison |publisher=American Heritage.com |accessdate=19 November 2009}}</ref>
;[[William McKinley]]
:25th President, 1897–1901: Born in [[Ohio]], the descendant of a farmer from Conagher, near [[Ballymoney]], [[County Antrim]], he was proud of his ancestry and addressed one of the national Scotch-Irish congresses held in the late 19th century.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} His second term as president was cut short by an assassin's bullet.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/viewspage.cfm?pg=3&ID=126 |title=Biography |author=Reference Staff |publisher=McKinley Memorial Library |accessdate=27 June 2011}}</ref>
;[[Theodore Roosevelt]]
:26th President, 1901–09: His mother, [[Mittie Bulloch]], had Ulster Scots ancestors who emigrated from [[Glenoe]], [[County Antrim]], in May 1729. Roosevelt praised "Irish Presbyterians" as "a bold and hardy race."<ref>Theodore Roosevelt, ''The Winning of the West'', Volume 1, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, pg. 77</ref> However, he is also the man who said: "But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts 'native' before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen." [http://home.comcast.net/~nhprman/trhyphenated.htm] (*Roosevelt was referring to "[[Nativism (politics)|nativists]]", not [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]], in this context)<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/|title=The Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt |publisher=American Heritage.com |accessdate=19 November 2009}}</ref>
;[[William Howard Taft]]
:27th President 1909–13<ref>{{Cite web| first = John T | last = Marck | url = http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1118.html | title = William H. Taft | publisher = aboutfamouspeople.com | accessdate = 2008-04-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/|title=The Presidents, William Taft |publisher=American Heritage.com |accessdate=19 November 2009}}</ref>
;[[Woodrow Wilson]]
:28th President, 1913–21: Of Ulster-Scot descent on both sides of the family, his roots were very strong and dear to him. He was grandson of a printer from [[Dergalt]], near [[Strabane]], [[County Tyrone]], whose former home is open to visitors.<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/>
;[[Warren G. Harding]]
:29th President 1921–23<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312172/harding.html | title = Warren Gamaliel Harding | publisher = thinkquest.com | accessdate = 2008-04-16}}</ref>
;[[Harry S. Truman]]
:33rd President 1945–53<ref>{{Cite web| first = John T | last = Marck | url = http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1124.html | title = Harry S. Truman | publisher = aboutfamouspeople.com | accessdate = 2008-04-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/|title=The Presidents, Harry S Truman |publisher=American Heritage.com |accessdate=19 November 2009}}</ref>
;[[John F. Kennedy]]
:35th President 1961–63, ([[County Wexford]])
;[[Richard Nixon]]
:37th President, 1969–74: The Nixon ancestors left Ulster in the mid-18th century; the Quaker Milhous family ties were with [[County Antrim]] and [[County Kildare]].<ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/>
;[[Jimmy Carter]]
:39th President 1977–1981 ([[County Antrim]] and [[County Londonderry]])<ref name="Ulter Scots Agency"/>: One of his maternal ancestors, Brandon McCain, emigrated from County Londonderry to America in 1810.
;[[Ronald Reagan]]
:40th President 1981–89: He was the great-grandson, on his father's side, of Irish migrants from [[Ballyporeen|County Tipperary]] who came to America via Canada and England in the 1840s. His mother was of Scottish and English ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/|title=The Presidents, Ronald Reagan |publisher=American Heritage.com |accessdate=19 November 2009}}</ref>
;[[George H. W. Bush]]
:41st President 1989–93 ([[County Wexford]]): historians have found that his now apparent ancestor, [[Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke|Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke]]. Shunned by [[Henry II of England|Henry II]], he offered his services as a mercenary in the 12th-century Norman invasion of Wexford, Ireland in exchange for power and land. Strongbow married [[Aoife MacMurrough|Aoife]], daughter of [[Dermot MacMurrough]], the Gaelic [[king of Leinster]].<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jan/27/usa.angeliquechrisafis|title=Scion of traitors and warlords: why Bush is coy about his Irish links |work=[[The Guardian]] |accessdate=13 July 2010 | location=London | first=Angelique | last=Chrisafis | date=2005-01-27}}</ref><ref name="DIG">{{Cite web| url = http://homepage.eircom.net/%257Eseanjmurphy/dir/pres.htm | title = American Presidents with Irish Ancestors | publisher = Directory of Irish Genealogy | accessdate = 15 April 2008}}</ref>
;[[Bill Clinton]]
:42nd President 1993–2001: He claims Irish ancestry despite there being no documentation of any of his ancestors coming from Ireland <ref name="ulsterscotsagency.com"/><ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.americanheritage.com/people/presidents/|title=The Presidents |publisher=American Heritage.com |accessdate=19 November 2009}}</ref>
;[[George W. Bush]]
:43rd President 2001–09: One of his five times great-grandfathers, William Holliday, was born in Rathfriland, [[County Down]], about 1755, (a British merchant living in Ireland) and died in Kentucky about 1811–12. One of the President's seven times great-grandfathers, William Shannon, was apparently born somewhere in [[County Cork]] about 1730, and died in Pennsylvania in 1784.<ref name="DIG"/>
;[[Barack Obama]]
:44th President 2009–present: Some of his maternal ancestors came to America from a small village called [[Moneygall]], in [[County Offaly]].<ref name="The Presidents, Barack Obama" /><ref>{{Cite web| url= http://www.wargs.com/political/obama.html | title = Ancestry of Barack Obama | publisher = William Addams Reitwiesner | accessdate= 2009-12-02 }}</ref> His ancestors lived in New England and the South and by the 1800s most were in the Midwest.

====Vice Presidents of Irish descent====
;[[Joe Biden]]
:47th Vice President 2009–present<ref>[http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irish-voice/news/Articles/biden-irish-roots280808.aspx Joe biden's ancestry; interview in 2008], accessed Aug 2010</ref>

====Other presidents of Irish descent====
;[[Jefferson Davis]]
:first and only President of the [[Confederate States of America]].<ref name="DIG"/><ref>Roberts and Otto (1995). p. 1.</ref>
;[[Sam Houston]]
:President of [[Texas]] 1836–38 and 1841–44

===Irish-American Justices of the Supreme Court===
:* [[William Paterson (judge)|William Paterson]]: born in County Antrim, Ireland.
:* [[Joseph McKenna]]
:* [[Edward Douglass White, Jr.|Edward D. White]]
:* [[Pierce Butler (justice)|Pierce Butler]]
:* [[Frank Murphy]]
:* [[James Francis Byrnes]]
:* [[William J. Brennan]]
:* [[Anthony Kennedy]]

==Contributions to American culture and sport==
{{details|List of Irish Americans}}
{{Unreferenced|section|date=May 2011}}
{{Refimprove|section|date=June 2011}}
[[Image:StPatrickCathedral small.jpg|thumb|upright|[[St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York]]]]
The annual celebration of [[Saint Patrick's Day]] may be the most{{Weasel-inline|date=May 2011}} widely recognized symbol of the Irish presence in America. In cities throughout the United States, this traditional Irish religious holiday becomes an opportunity to celebrate all things Irish, or things believed to be "Irish".{{Opinion|date=May 2011}} The largest celebration of the holiday takes place in New York, where the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade draws an average of two million people. The second-largest celebration is held in Boston. The South Boston Parade, is one the nation's oldest dating back to 1737. [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] also holds one of the largest parades in the United States.

Since the arrival of nearly two million Irish immigrants in the 1840s, the urban Irish cop and firefighter have become virtual icons of American popular culture. In many large cities, the police and fire departments have been dominated by the Irish for over 100 years, even after the ethnic Irish residential populations in those cities dwindled to small minorities. Many police and fire departments maintain large and active "[[Emerald Society|Emerald Societies]]", bagpipe marching groups, or other similar units demonstrating their members' pride in their Irish heritage.

While these archetypal images are especially well known, Irish Americans have contributed to U.S. culture in a wide variety of fields: the fine and performing arts, film, literature, politics, sports, and religion. The Irish-American contribution to popular entertainment is reflected in the careers of figures such as [[James Cagney]], [[Bing Crosby]], [[Walt Disney]], [[John Ford]], [[Judy Garland]],<ref name="flynn&kelleher">Flynn, John & Jerry Kelleher. ''Dublin Journeys in America'' pp. 150–153, High Table Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-9544694-1-0</ref> [[Gene Kelly]], [[Grace Kelly]],  [[Tyrone Power]], [[Ada Rehan]], and [[Spencer Tracy]]. Irish-born actress [[Maureen O'Hara]],<ref name="flynn&kelleher">pp. 148–149</ref> who became an American citizen, defined for U.S. audiences the archetypal, feisty Irish "colleen" in popular films such as ''[[The Quiet Man]]'' and ''[[The Long Gray Line]]''. More recently, the Irish-born [[Pierce Brosnan]] gained screen celebrity as [[James Bond]]. During the early years of television, popular figures with Irish roots included [[Gracie Allen]], [[Art Carney]], [[Joe Flynn (US actor)|Joe Flynn]], [[Jackie Gleason]], and [[Ed Sullivan]].

Since the early days of the film industry, celluloid representations of Irish Americans have been plentiful. Famous films with Irish-American themes include social dramas such as ''[[Little Nellie Kelly]]'' and ''[[The Cardinal]]'', labor epics like ''[[On the Waterfront]]'', and gangster movies such as ''[[Angels with Dirty Faces]]'', ''[[Gangs of New York]]'', and ''[[The Departed]]''. Irish-American characters have been featured in popular television series such as ''[[Ryan's Hope]]'' and ''[[Rescue Me (TV series)|Rescue Me]]''.

Prominent Irish-American literary figures include [[Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer]] and [[Nobel Prize]]–winning playwright [[Eugene O'Neill]], [[Jazz Age]] novelist [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], social realist [[James T. Farrell]], and [[Southern Gothic]] writer [[Flannery O'Connor]]. The 19th-century novelist [[Henry James]] was also of partly Irish descent. While Irish Americans have been underrepresented in the plastic arts, two well-known American painters claim Irish roots. 20th-century painter [[Georgia O'Keeffe]] was born to an Irish-American father, and 19th-century [[trompe-l'œil]] painter [[William Harnett]] emigrated from Ireland to the United States.

The Irish-American contribution to politics spans the entire ideological spectrum. Socially conservative Irish immigrants generally recoiled from radical politics, and in the early 1950s, a disproportionate{{weasel-inline|date=January 2011}} percentage of Irish Americans supported Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]]'s anti-Communist "witchhunt".{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} Two prominent American socialists, [[Mary Harris Jones|Mary Harris "Mother" Jones]] and [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]], were Irish Americans. In the 1960s, Irish-American writer [[Michael Harrington]] became an influential advocate of social welfare programs. Harrington's views profoundly influenced President [[John F. Kennedy]] and his brother, [[Robert F. Kennedy]]. Meanwhile, Irish-American political writer [[William F. Buckley]] emerged as a major intellectual force in American [[Conservatism|conservative]] politics in the latter half of the 20th century. Buckley's magazine, ''[[National Review]]'', proved an effective advocate of successful [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidates such as [[Ronald Reagan]].

Notorious Irish Americans include the legendary [[New Mexico]] outlaw known as [[Billy the Kid]], whose real name was supposedly Henry McCarty.<ref name="wallis6">Wallis (2007), p. 6.</ref><ref name="utley2">Utley (1989), p. 2.</ref> Many historians believe McCarty was born in New York City to Famine-era immigrants from Ireland.<ref name="wallis6" /><ref name="utley2" /> [[Mary Mallon]], also known as ''Typhoid Mary'' was an Irish immigrant, as was [[madam]] [[Josephine Airey]], who also went by the name of "Chicago Joe" Hensley. [[New Orleans]] socialite and murderess [[Delphine LaLaurie]], whose maiden name was Macarty, was of partial paternal Irish ancestry. Irish-American [[Irish mob|mobsters]] include, amongst others, [[George "Bugs" Moran]], [[Dean O'Bannion]], and [[Jack Diamond (gangster)|Jack "Legs" Diamond]]. [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], the assassin of John F. Kennedy had an Irish-born great-grandmother by the name of Mary Tonry.<ref>Louisiana census</ref> Colorful Irish Americans also include [[Margaret Brown|Margaret Tobin]] of ''[[RMS Titanic]]'' fame, scandalous model [[Evelyn Nesbit]], dancer [[Isadora Duncan]], [[San Francisco]] madam [[Tessie Wall]], and [[Nellie Cashman]], nurse and gold prospector in the [[American west]].

The wide popularity of Celtic music has fostered the rise of Irish-American bands that draw heavily on traditional Irish themes and music. Such groups include New York City's ''[[Black 47]]'' founded in the late 1980s blending [[punk rock]], [[rock and roll]], [[Irish music]], [[hip hop music|rap/hip-hop]], [[reggae]], and [[Soul music|soul]]; and the [[Dropkick Murphys]], a Celtic punk band formed in [[Quincy, Massachusetts]] nearly a decade later. [[The Decemberists]], a band featuring Irish-American singer [[Colin Meloy]], released ''Shankill Butchers'', a song that deals with the [[Ulster loyalism|Ulster Loyalists]] the "[[Shankill Butchers]]". The song appears on their album ''[[The Crane Wife]]''. [[Flogging Molly]], lead by Dublin-born [[Dave King (Irish singer)|Dave King]], are relative newcomers building upon this new tradition.

The Irish brought their native games of [[Gaelic handball|handball]], [[hurling]] and [[Gaelic football]] to America. Along with ''[[camogie]]'', these sports are part of the [[Gaelic Athletic Association]]. The [[North American GAA]] organization is still very strong.

Irish Americans can be found among the earliest stars in professional baseball, including [[King Kelly|Michael “King” Kelly]], [[Roger Connor]] (the home run king before Babe Ruth), [[Eddie Collins]], [[Roger Bresnahan]], [[Ed Walsh]] and NY Giants manager [[John McGraw]]. The large 1945 class of inductees enshrined in the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame]] in [[Cooperstown, New York]] included nine Irish Americans.

Also of Irish descent, [[Walter O'Malley]] was a real estate businessman and majority team owner of the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]]. He moved the team to [[Los Angeles]] in 1958 in a deal to bring major league baseball to [[California]], and he convinced the [[New York Giants (baseball)]] team owners move to [[San Francisco]]. The O'Malley family owned the Dodgers until they sold the team in 1998.

==Irish-American communities==
{{Main|List of Irish-American communities}}

==See also==
{{Portal box|United States|Ireland}}
{{Celts and Modern Celts sidebar}}
* [[Carroll family]]
* [[69th Infantry Regiment (United States)]]
* [[Irish American Athletic Club]]
* [[Irish Brigade (U.S.)]]
* [[Irish Canadian]]
* [[Irish Whales]]
* [[Irish American Athletic Club]]
* [[Irish American Cultural Institute]]
* [[Irish Mob]]
* [[List of Americans of Irish descent]]
* [[Saint Patrick's Battalion]]
* [[University of Notre Dame]]
* [[South Boston, Massachusetts]]
* [[South Shore, Massachusetts]]
* [[Irish Race Conventions]]
* [[Scotch-Irish American]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
===General surveys===
* Fanning, Charles (1990/2000). ''The Irish Voice in America: 250 Years of Irish-American Fiction''. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press. ISBN 0-8131-0970-1
* Glazier, Michael, ed. (1999). ''The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America''. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-02755-2
* Glynn, Irial: [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-20110201190 Emigration Across the Atlantic: Irish, Italians and Swedes compared, 1800-1950], [[European History Online]], Mainz: [[Institute of European History]], 2011, retrieved: June 16, 2011.
* McGee, Thomas D'Arcy (1852). [http://www.libraryireland.com/IrishSettlers/Contents.php ''A History of the Irish Settlers in North America from the Earliest Period to the Census of 1850'']
* Meagher, Timothy J. (2005). ''The Columbia Guide to Irish American History''. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12070-8
* Merryweather (née Green), Kath (2009). ''The Irish Rossiter: Ancestors and Their World Wide Descendents and Connections''. Bristol, UK: Irishancestors4u. ISBN 978-0-9562976-0-0
* Miller, Kerby M. (1985). ''Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505187-4
* Negra, Diane (ed.) (2006). ''The Irish in Us''. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3740-1
* Quinlan, Kieran (2005). ''Strange Kin: Ireland and the American South''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-2983-8
* Quinlin, Michael P. (2004). ''Irish Boston: A Lively Look at Boston's Colorful Irish Past''. Gilford: Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 978-0-7627-2901-2

===Catholic Irish===
* Anbinder, Tyler (2002). ''Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum''. New York: Plume ISBN 0-452-28361-2
* Bayor, Ronald; Meagher, Timothy (eds.) (1997) ''The New York Irish''. Baltimore: University of Johns Hopkins Press. ISBN 0-8018-5764-3
* Blessing, Patrick J. (1992). ''The Irish in America: A Guide to the Literature and the Manuscript Editions''. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 0-8132-0731-2
* Clark, Dennis (1982). ''The Irish in Philadelphia: Ten Generations of Urban Experience'' (2nd Ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-227-4
* [[Hasia Diner|Diner, Hasia R.]] (1983). ''Erin's Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-2872-4
* English, T. J. (2005). ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster''. New York: ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-059002-5
* Erie, Steven P. (1988). ''Rainbow's End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840—1985''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07183-2
* Ignatiev, Noel (1996). ''How the Irish Became White''. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91825-1
* McCaffrey, Lawrence J. (1976). ''The Irish Diaspora in America''. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America ISBN 0-8132-0896-3
* Meagher, Timothy J. (2000). ''Inventing Irish America: Generation, Class, and Ethnic Identity in a New England City, 1880–1928''. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-03154-1
* Mitchell, Brian C. (2006). ''The Paddy Camps: The Irish of Lowell, 1821–61''. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-07338-X
* Mulrooney, Margaret M. (ed.) (2003). ''Fleeing the Famine: North America and Irish Refugees, 1845–1851''. New York: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-97670-X
* Noble, Dale T. (1986). ''Paddy and the Republic: Ethnicity and Nationality in Antebellum America''. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6167-3
* O'Connor, Thomas H. (1995). ''The Boston Irish: A Political History''. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 978-1-56852-620-1
* O'Donnell, L. A. (1997). ''Irish Voice and Organized Labor in America: A Biographical Study''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

===Protestant Irish===
* Blaustein, Richard. '' The Thistle and the Brier: Historical Links and Cultural Parallels Between Scotland and Appalachia'' (2003).
* Blethen, Tyler; Wood, Curtis W. Jr.; Blethen, H. Tyler (Eds.) (1997). ''Ulster and North America: Transatlantic Perspectives on the Scotch-Irish''. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0823-7
* Cunningham, Roger (1991). ''Apples on the Flood: Minority Discourse and Appalachia''. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0-87049-629-8
* Fischer, David Hackett (1991). ''Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America''. New York: Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 0-19-506905-6
* Ford, Henry Jones (1915). ''The Scotch-Irish in America''. [http://books.google.com/books?id=5iJCAAAAIAAJ Full text online].
* Griffin, Patrick (2001). ''The People with No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689–1764''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07462-3
* Leyburn, James G. (1989). ''The Scotch-Irish: A Social History''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4259-1
* Lorle, Porter (1999). ''A People Set Apart: The Scotch-Irish in Eastern Ohio''. Zanesville, OH: Equine Graphics Publishing. ISBN 1-887932-75-5
* McWhiney, Grady (1988). '' Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South''. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0328-6
* Ray, Celeste. ''Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South'' (2001).
* Webb, James H. (2004). ''Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America''. New York: Broadway. ISBN 0-7679-1688-3. A controversial interpretation by a novelist (who is now a senator).

==External links==
* [http://www.irishamerica.com/ Irish America magazine]—magazine for Irish Americans
* [http://www.irishvoice.com/ Irish Voice]—newspaper for Irish Americans
* [http://www.IrishEmigrant.com/Boston The Boston Irish Emigrant]
* [http://www.IrishEmigrant.com/NY The New York Irish Emigrant]
* [http://www.aoh.com/ Ancient Order of Hibernians]
* [http://www.imdb.com/keyword/irish-american IMDb.com Irish-American]
* [http://www.irlfunds.org/ The Ireland Funds]
* [http://www.eiresociety.org/ The Eire Society of Boston]
* [http://www.murphguide.com/irish.htm New York Irish Bars]
* [http://www.fdnyemerald.com/ FDNY Emerald Society]
* [http://fdnypipesanddrums.com/ FDNY Emerald Society Pipes and Drums]
* [http://nclees.org/ National Conference of Law Enforcement Emerald Societies]
* [http://www.upthedeise.org/waterfordmessageboard Irish Expatriate Discussion Forum]
* [http://www.bostonirish.com/ Boston Irish Reporter]
* [http://www.irishamericanmuseumdc.org www.irishamericanmuseumdc.org]
* [http://homepage.eircom.net/%257Eseanjmurphy/dir/pres.htm American Presidents with Irish Ancestors]
* [http://www.IrishAmericanHistory.com/ IrishAmericanHistory.com]—Irish American History
* [http://www.Irishamericanstoryproject.com/ Irish American Story Project]
* [http://www.rte.ie/live/?news/ News for Irish Americans]
* [http://www.wingedfist.org Winged Fist Organization]

===Communities===
* [http://www.buffaloirish.com/ Buffalo's Irish Community]
* [http://www.detroitirish.org/ Detroit's Irish Community]
* [http://www.kcirish.org/ Kansas City's Irish Community]
* [http://www.irishinla.com/ Irish Community in Los Angeles]
* [http://www.irishomaha.com/ Omaha's Irish Community]
* [http://www.irishphiladelphia.com/ Irish Philadelphia]
* [http://www.pittsburghirish.org/ Pittsburgh Irish Network]
* [http://www.irishboston.org Boston Irish Tourism Association]
* [http://www.irishheritagetrail.com Boston Irish Heritage Trail]
* [http://www.psgilmore-society.org Patrick S. Gilmore Society] in Milton MA
* [http://www.boston.com/famine Boston Irish Famine Memorial]
* [http://www.irishpennsylvania.com Irish Pennsylvania]


{{European Americans}}
{{Demographics of the United States}}
{{Irish diaspora}}

<!--Categories-->
[[Category:American people of Irish descent| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the United States|Irish American]]
[[Category:Irish American history| ]]
[[Category:Irish diaspora|American]]
[[Category:Irish genealogy]]
[[Category:Fictional American people of Irish descent]]

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