What do you think of when you think of Irish-Americans? Many different images may come to mind, but what does it really mean to be Irish-American? As of 2012, 34.1 million Americans claimed Irish ancestry, more than seven times Ireland's population of 4.6 million today.1 And, of course, on St. Patrick's Day everyone's Irish!
But when we think of Irish immigration to America it is integrally linked with the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1850) when 500,000 Irish fled their homeland for America between 1850 and 1860.2 Those who immigrated during this period were Catholic and largely rural tenant farmers from the south and west of Ireland .3 They were the first wave of poor refugees to arrive on America's shores and eastern cities -- founded by Puritan Protestants -- were ill-prepared for the influx. This led to rampant discrimination and open prejudice against the Irish whose Catholicism represented "Old World" oppression.4
This composite picture is the one most people have of Irish immigrants. Yet, this is not the story of my Irish ancestors. My forefather, Owen Flynn, was a carpenter by trade, as were several of his sons, from the Irish province of Ulster. County Cavan, where the family originated is in now part of the Republic of Ireland and is a collar county of Northern Ireland. In America, the family was Episcopalian; its Irish counterpart the Church of Ireland. My ancestors immigrated after the major wave of famine Irish, and had enough financial wherewithal that Owen was able to return to Ireland when he found the New World not to his liking. His children, however, remained.
All this serves as a set up for an Irish folktale in my family. My grandmother always maintained that her Irish relatives had "loaned money to Ireland." Now, which of her ancestors might have actually done this is unknown. During most of her childhood she lived near her Flynn grandparents, and spent a great deal of time with them so likely she heard this story from her grandfather, Lester. Her Irish-born great-grandfather, Arthur Flynn died in 1921, the year before she was born and was prosperous enough that he might have been the one to donate to the cause. But which cause?
As Irish Protestants, was the family in favor of Great Britain's continued rule of Ireland or for Home Rule and Irish independence? Many Americans did help finance Irish republican movements in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.5 Are you more Irish if you favored independence? Many of Northern Ireland's Protestants were Scottish, having immigrated themselves to Ireland in the 18th century. Our understanding of our heritage is nuanced and shaded by myth and memory. I consider myself an Irish-American and proud of it. Is my Irish story the quintessential one? No. But I don't think it makes me any less Irish and helps illustrate each of our ancestor's stories is unique.
What I know for sure is my grandmother believed if we "ever got the money back from Ireland" we'd be rich. Now if I could only find that receipt!
Éirinn go Brách!
Sources:
- United States Census Bureau. Facts for Features: Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St. Patrick's Day (March 17): 2014.
- PBS. Destination America: European Emigration to the U.S. 1851-1860
- The History Place. Irish Potato Famine.
- The Society Pages. Negative Stereotypes of the Irish.
- History Learning Site. The Great Famine of 1845.
