Posted on 02/06/2018 7:19:26 PM PST by Az Joe
Today, 32 million Americans—10 percent of the country’s population—celebrate their Irish roots. There was a time, however, when the thought of Americans honoring all things Irish was unimaginable. This is the story of the prejudice encountered by refugees from Ireland’s Great Hunger and how those Irish exiles persevered to become part of the American mainstream.
Not that I’m vying for Irish victimhood but English atrocities in Ireland started way way way before 1720
Didn’t you see Disneys The Fighting Prince of Donegal?
As southerners we claim Ulster Irish given were prods but given my maternal surname Sullivan odds are we were Catholics at some point there
I think Henry II was first Brit overlord even if partial of Ireland
What BS?
My heritage similar but one step closer.
Nice to get your observation. Places Great Grandfather lived in Ireland were Skibbereen, (sp) Ventry, Sherkin, Baltimore, Long Island. Last two actual Irish name places.
Vital records so valuable to my research destroyed. This was in the Easter Rebellion 1916. The splendid building in Dublin with the records was fired on by howitzers. This to evict rebellious Irish. It burnt down. Later, an uneasy truce was declared between the two groups.
“They were illiterate and spoke very little to no English...”
Many of the history books describe the Irish and poor and illiterate. They also describe them as diseased and unreliable. Those descriptions are probably a reflection of the prejudice the immigrants faced when they arrived here, not to mention the prejudice they experienced from the English back home.
If you take the time to go beyond those Wikipedia accounts and actually read the letters sent between the immigrants and their families back home you will actually find those descriptions not to be true. Those letters contain better mastery of the language and penmanship than you will find in the writings of our current college students. The penmanship is beautiful. It equals anything written by any Brahmin living on Beacon Hill.
While the Irish immigrants may have been poor, and they may have become poorer for lack of job opportunities, most spoke the Kings English and were definitely literate.
“If from Ireland, your 1720s heritage definitely precedes the U.K. bondage.”
Not exactly. Cromwell conquered Ireland in the 1650s and seized the property of Catholic Irish Confederates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Confederate_Wars
>> The splendid building in Dublin with the records was fired on by howitzers...
>> my research destroyed (1916)
There’s always the possibility of reconstructing the missing data by knowing the before and after. God Bless.
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