The Irish in Ireland and in North America

In the 1800 's, the population of Ireland relied heavily on the cultivation and eating of potatoes grown on the land that they were not theirs. The land they cultivate is owned by others. In 1845, a devastating illness attacked the whole Irish potato. All the potato crop suddenly withered for five years, leading to starvation, illness, and death. It also brought numerous immigrants to North America. These immigrants from Ireland came not only to Ellis Island in New York but also to Quebec, Boston, Baltimore, and Gross near Philadelphia.

Still, it is estimated that more than a million Irish people died of diseases related to starvation and famine. More than 1 million people also left Ireland and emigrated to Australia or North America. People who came to the United States joined many other Irish and German immigrants. Germans escaped from their houses during the same period of their political revolution. Unlike most of their predecessors, new immigrants are often Catholics or Jews. In search of work, they arrived at the port northeast. A few people (mostly Germans) can afford to open a store or move to the west to buy farmland. However, most immigrants need to find a job as a domestic servant at a dock, factory, construction site, or middle class family.

During the industrialization era of America, a large amount of immigrants flowed in. With only Ireland's potato famine, one million Irish immigrants flowed into the United States. In countries like China, the urgent need for similar famine and better living has driven other immigrants to the flood in the United States. New immigrants are discriminated and prejudiced - they compete with Americans for work and accept low wages. Between 1870 and 1900, nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the USA. Because of language barriers, workers are becoming harder to form unions - the history of immigration law in the United States and more facts about the history of old immigrants and new immigrants

From 1607 to 1820, most immigrants from Ireland to the United States were Protestants known as "Irish." Since 1820, when numerous Irish Catholics started migrating to the United States, religious distinction became important. Since then, some descendants of colonial Irish Protestant settlers from Ulster emphasize their historic origins and emphasize staying away from Irish Catholics. In this area, Irish Catholics hardly migrate. By 1830 the population structure of Irish representatives has changed rapidly and more than 60% of all Irish settlers in the United States came from Irish rural Catholics.