The Irish in america

The Irish starved they came to america . They faced enormous difficulties.They found homes in what became America's first urban ethnic ghettos. they lived in overcrowed hovels.they had disease,crime,unemployment,drink,and despair.Their communities were called Paddytown,Irishtown ,Micktown. They fought hard against great odds. They found whatever work that could be found  The Irishbnecame industrial America's cheap laboring force. Railroads bridges and dugcanalsand tunnels.They wentinto mines,tended furnaces and worked as servants and seamstresses they fought and died to preserve their new found home.two hundred sixty three natives of Ireland would go on to earn the Congressional Medal of honor  TheIrish forged a communal voice by forming labor unions and political organizations  They created cultural and religious societies. slowly they became Irish Americans.They paved the way for others that would follow. In the sixty years after the Great Hunger over six million Irish would leave thrir homeland eighty percent would come to the U.Sthis was a pattern of chain emigration that would continue well into the twentieth century .In the year 2000 over forty four million american claimed Irish heritage. TheIrish had become major influences in every area of American Culture.

marianne stokes