Irish people were one of the earliest people in the Americas, they were very influential and did great things for the US, in fact, “Eight men of Irish descent signed the Declaration of Independence (Robert ‘25)”. Between 1800-1844 there were 8 million people in Ireland, during the same years, 600,000 left for America. Many of the immigrants were poor, unskilled Irish-Catholics from southern and western Ireland. Through 1841-1850, 780,700 people emigrated from Ireland for America and Canada. Today, 40 million Americans can trace their lineage back to Ireland. Starvation, religious discrimination, and disease forced Irish immigrants out of their home country and into the US, where they had early troubles fitting in, but through it all, they seemed
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“English troops came in and slaughtered men and women to make them practice the Protestant religion (Robert, 12)”. Many of these men were forced to work on tenants of land for hundreds of years. They paid the wealthy landlords in parts of their harvest, and in return the farmers got to keep their potato crops in order to feed their families and themselves, but none of the farmers thought that something that they relied on could be the end of them. “Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country (Gavin, “Irish Potato Famine”)”. In the late 1840’s, landowners started to evict peasants off the land which left thousands of people with no place to leave, no food to eat, and no hope of finding jobs. With no hope to survive in Ireland, many decided to roll the dice and go to America to try and begin a new …show more content…
They have made a long lasting impact on the US and they have no plans of doing anything different. One of the most influential Irish descendants was John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), he was the 35th President of the US and the youngest President ever. Kennedy symbolized much more than just a president, “He was not the first president of Irish heritage, but was the first Catholic president and was the youngest man ever to be elected into office. Kennedy's presidency was a signal to many Irish Americans that were descendants of poor, starving peasants from Ireland had finally been accepted into American culture (O’Hara
“English troops came in and slaughtered men and women to make them practice the Protestant religion (Robert, 12)”. Many of these men were forced to work on tenants of land for hundreds of years. They paid the wealthy landlords in parts of their harvest, and in return the farmers got to keep their potato crops in order to feed their families and themselves, but none of the farmers thought that something that they relied on could be the end of them. “Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country (Gavin, “Irish Potato Famine”)”. In the late 1840’s, landowners started to evict peasants off the land which left thousands of people with no place to leave, no food to eat, and no hope of finding jobs. With no hope to survive in Ireland, many decided to roll the dice and go to America to try and begin a new …show more content…
They have made a long lasting impact on the US and they have no plans of doing anything different. One of the most influential Irish descendants was John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), he was the 35th President of the US and the youngest President ever. Kennedy symbolized much more than just a president, “He was not the first president of Irish heritage, but was the first Catholic president and was the youngest man ever to be elected into office. Kennedy's presidency was a signal to many Irish Americans that were descendants of poor, starving peasants from Ireland had finally been accepted into American culture (O’Hara