The Irish came to the US from 1847 to 1860 fleeing the genocide that was the potato famine. As stated above they came here legally. Many were single young men who joined the army and fought mostly for the North in the Civil War. A Confederate general was quoted after the war that they may have won if they had had more Irish on their side... After the war, many of the Irish worked to build the trans-continental railroad. If the Civil War had been a stalemate or the railroad not built, what is now the US could have been 2 or 3 separate countries. Makes you think what would have happened in WWI and WWII...
My parents came here legally in 1948 from Ireland. They came on a plane with their documentation, health report, TB xray, etc. Other than the fact that they are from a foreign country, they have nothing in common with the criminal illegal aliens in the US today. Drawing the comparison is offensive....