Chronology of Irish-American History
2018
Governor Phil Murphy
Philip Dunton Murphy is an Irish-American financier, diplomat, and politician currently serving as the 56th Governor of New Jersey.
1990 - 2006
Eileen Collins
Born in Elmira, New York, Eileen Collins parents were immigrants from County Cork, Ireland.She became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle mission during the Discovery's rendezvous with the Mir space station in 1995. By 1999, she had logged 419 hours in space and was given command of the space shuttle Columbia, another first for a woman. She retired from NASA in 2006.
1988
Anthony Kennedy
Born and raised in an Irish Catholic family in Sacramento, California, Anthony Kennedy was appointed to become Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagon.
1986
First Parade in Atlantic City, NJ
The first Saint Patrick's Day parade in Atlantic City was held in 1986. The first parade was organized by Al McMahon, who was the owner of the Circle Tavern in Brigantine and Joe Shields, a bartender who worked at the Surfside in Margate. Inspired by the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Philadelphia and the work of Jimmy Cavanaugh, Al and Joe enlisted the cooperation of tavern owners from The Irish Pub, The Greater Pittsburgh bar, Cassidy's Grille, McGettigan's Saloon, Maynard's, Maloney's to name a few. Members of the Irish Cultural Society and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick also joined the parade.
1956 - 1990
William J. Brennan Jr.
Born in Newark, New Jersey the second of eight children, Justice Brennan was appointed to the Supreme Court by Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.
1960
John F. Kennedy
Becomes the first Catholic President of the United States.
1955
Mayor Richard Daley
Irish Catholic native of Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, Richard J. Daley was mayor of Chicago until 1975.
1903
Child Labor Laws
Mary Harris, "Mother Jones" travels to the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia to join in the strike of over 100,000 textile workers (largely Irish-Americans) fighting over working conditions and wages. Many of these workers were children leading to the creation of child labors laws by President Theodore Roosevelt.
1882
Knights of Columbus
Father Michael J. McGivney, the 29-year-old assistant pastor of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn. gathers together a group of men to form the Knights organization in response to hostility towards Catholic immigrants and dangerous working conditions which left families fatherless.
1863
The New York Draft Riots
President Lincoln called for 300,000 troops. If you were healthy and were among those called, you had several options provided by federal law: pay a substitute to take your place; pay a commutation fee of $300, enabling you to avoid service. Many Irish-American did not have the money to avoid the draft.
1850 thru 1920's
Domestic Servants
Many Irish emigrants, especially women worked as indentured servants of the upper-class of America.
1845
Potato famine in Ireland begins
Over 1 Million Irish will emigrate to America over the course of a twenty year period from 1845 to 1860.
1817-1825
Erie Canal
A large number of Irish workers were employed to construct the Erie Canal in New York State.
1762
First Saint Patrick's Day Parade
Irish soldiers serving in the British army in New York City hold the first parade honoring the Catholic feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
Early 18th Century
Scots-Irish immigration
18th-century Ulster immigrants were predominantly Protestant and had settled mostly in the upland regions of the American interior.
17th Century
Colonial settlers coming from the province of Ulster
Descendants of Scottish and English tenant farmers who had been settled in Ireland by the British government came to the American Colonies. Approximately 250,00 migrated to the Colonies of which 20,000 were Catholics.
Facts and quotes
" St. Patrick's day was first celebrated in the United States in Boston in 1762. It's not surprising that it reached our shores as there are more Americans of Irish origin than there are Irish in Ireland. "
