Time For Your Annual Green Beer
The Luck of the Irish?

Each and every one of us will become a wee bit Irish on March 17th as we wear green, celebrate with green beer and watch parades! For there is nothing so grand as being Irish on that very special day! But it is not just about being Irish, its also a tribute to the men and women that first came to America. Once society was not so kind to the Irishmen - it was a harsh journey to these shores, and not one of instant success. The first immigrants were mostly Irish Catholic indentured servants during the 1600s, but the 1700s brought the Irish Protestants who quickly took to the land.

There is always a twist of irony to history, and Irish history was focused on the potato. It was the arrival of the potato from America that helped to triple the population of peasants in Ireland and start cultivating new lands. That was until 1845 and 1846, when a blight hit the potato fields. The crop failure was total for both years. People were desperate to feed their families but there was no food. The Irishmen were reduced to eating dogs, cats, seaweed and grass. The winter of 1847 was the worst - not only were the peasants hungry but disease came upon them. Peasants were too sick and frail to even work. Many of them dropped dead on the roadside. It was then that the landlords decided that it was more profitable to ship the peasants abroad then to try and feed them. So began the evictions and the boarding of the "coffin ships" for the New World. The blight returned in 1848 and 1849. Peasants that survived were forced to give up their land or starve. During those harsh years, 1.5 million people left Ireland for the New World.

But it was not a life of ease once on American shores. Many of the imigrants boarded cotton ships and migrated to southern ports. They vied for whatever work was available, even competing with the black slaves. New Orleans had a yellow fever epidemic in 1853 that wiped out 1 of every 5 Irishmen. It was no easier for the imigrants in the northern ports. In one year alone, some 30,000 Irish immigrants entered Boston, which then only had a population of 100,000. The American working class resented the Irishmen. The Civil War changed the atmosphere for the Irishmen - it gave them a chance to prove themselves in war, and they fought heroically for both the North and South.

After the war there was an industrial boom that increased the demand for labor and the Irish were in the thick of it, including mining, railroad building and raising up the west. A journey began by grandparents and finally completed by their children’s children. In spite of the hardships, there are many famous Irishmen that contributed to the growth and spirit of America, including Andrew Jackson and John F. Kennedy. - SharLeigh