Some of the first Irish people to travel to the New World did so as members of the Spanish garrison in Florida during the 1560s, and small numbers of Irish colonists were involved in efforts to establish colonies in the Amazon region, in Newfoundland, and in Virginia between 1604 and the 1630s. According to historian Donald Akenson, there were "few if any" Irish being forcibly transported to the New World during this period. The
Plantation of Ulster, by the
Stuart monarchy of the early 17th century, primarily in the lands gained by the
Flight of the Earls, with an equal number of loyal Lowland Scots and redundant English
Border reivers, caused resentment, as did their transferring of all property owned by the Roman Catholic Church to the
Church of Ireland, resulting in the
Irish Rebellion of 1641. Following the rebellion's failure the Commonwealth regime began to pacify Ireland, through the sentencing and transporting Irish rebels (known as “tories”), Catholic priests, friars and schoolmasters, to
indentured servitude in the
Crown's New World colonies. This increased following the
Cromwellian invasion of Ireland (1649–1653), of the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1653).
Cromwell took Irish land both to repay investors who had financed the invasion and as payment for his soldiers, many of whom settled down in Ireland. As a result, Irish in Leinster, and Munster, with property worth more than £10, were ordered to move to
Connaught, to land valued at no more than 1/3 the value of their current holding, or be banished on pain of death. In the 17th century 50,000 Irish people are estimated to have migrated to the New World colonies, 165,000 by 1775. During these events from 1641-53, the population of Ireland fell between 20 and 40 percent due to famine and other war-related causes, but doubled from approximately one to two million over the whole century.
Argentina . In the 19th and early 20th centuries, over 38,000 Irish immigrated to
Argentina. Very distinct Irish communities and schools existed until the Perón era in the 1950s. Today there are an estimated 500,000 people of Irish ancestry in Argentina, Despite the fact that Argentina was never the main destination for Irish emigrants it does form part of the Irish diaspora. The Irish-Argentine
William Bulfin remarked as he travelled around Westmeath in the early 20th century that he came across many locals who had been to Buenos Aires. Several families from
Bere island,
County Cork were encouraged to send emigrants to Argentina by an islander who had been successful there in the 1880s. Considered by some to be a national hero,
William Brown is the most famous Irish citizen in Argentina. Creator of the
Argentine Navy (
Armada de la República Argentina, ARA) and leader of the
Argentine Armed Forces in the wars against Brazil and Spain, he was born in
Foxford,
County Mayo on 22 June 1777 and died in
Buenos Aires in 1857. The is named after him, as well as the
Almirante Brown partido, part of the
Gran Buenos Aires urban area, with a population of over 500.000 inhabitants. The first entirely Roman Catholic English language publication published in Buenos Aires,
The Southern Cross is an Argentine newspaper founded on 16 January 1875 by Dean Patricio Dillon, an Irish immigrant, a deputy for
Buenos Aires Province and president of the Presidential Affairs Commission amongst other positions. The newspaper continues in print to this day and publishes a beginner's guide to the
Irish language, helping
Irish Argentines keep in touch with their cultural heritage. Previously to
The Southern Cross Dublin-born brothers
Edward and
Michael Mulhall successfully published
The Standard, allegedly the first English-language daily paper in South America. Between 1943 and 1946, the de facto
President of Argentina was
Edelmiro Farrell, whose paternal ancestry was Irish.
Bermuda ''), found only in Bermuda and Ireland Early in its history,
Bermuda had reputed connections with Ireland. It has been suggested that
St. Brendan discovered it during his legendary voyage; a local
psychiatric hospital (since renamed) was named after him. In 1616, an incident occurred in which five white settlers arrived in Ireland, having crossed the Atlantic (a distance of around ) in a two-ton boat. By the following year, one of Bermuda's main islands was
named after Ireland. By the mid-17th century, Irish
prisoners of war and civilian captives were involuntarily shipped to Bermuda, condemned to
indentured servitude. These people had become indentured as a result of the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The Cromwellian conquest led to Irish captives, from both military and civilian backgrounds, to be sent as indentured servants to the West Indies. The Puritan Commonwealth government saw sending indentured servants from Ireland to the Caribbean as both assisting in their conquest of the island (by removing the strongest resistance against their rule) and saving the souls of the
Roman Catholic Irish servants by settling them in Protestant-dominated colonies where they would supposedly inevitably
convert to the "
true faith". In 1661, the colonial government alleged that a plot was being hatched by an alliance of Blacks and Irish, one which involved cutting the throats of all Bermudians of English descent. The
governor of Bermuda,
William Sayle (who had returned to Bermuda after the Bermudian colonial government acknowledged the authority of
Parliament) countered the alleged plot with three edicts: The first was that a nightly watch be raised throughout the colony; second, that slaves and the Irish be disarmed of militia weapons; and third, that any gathering of two or more Irish or slaves be dispersed by whipping. There were no arrests, trials or executions connected to the plot, though an Irish woman named Margaret was found to be romantically involved with a Native American; she was voted to be stigmatised and he was whipped. During the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth Centuries, the colony's various demographic groups boiled down to free whites and mostly enslaved "coloured" Bermudians with a homogeneous Anglo-Bermudian culture. Little survived of the Irish culture brought by indentured servants from Ireland. Catholicism was outlawed in Bermuda by the colonial authorities, and all islanders were required by law to attend services of the established
Anglican church. Some surnames that were common in Bermuda at this period, however, give lingering evidence of the Irish presence. For example, the area to the east of
Bailey's Bay, in Hamilton Parish, is named
Callan Glen for a Scottish-born shipwright,
Claude MacCallan, who settled in Bermuda after the vessel in which he was a passenger was wrecked off the North Shore in 1787. MacCallan swam to a rock from which he was rescued by a Bailey's Bay fisherman named
Daniel Seon (
Sheehan). A later Daniel Seon was appointed Clerk of the
House of Assembly and Prothonotary of the Court of General Assize in 1889 (he was also the Registrar of the Supreme Court, and died in 1909). and the Grassy Bay anchorage seen from HMD Bermuda in 1862 In 1803, Irish poet
Thomas Moore arrived in Bermuda, having been appointed registrar to the
Admiralty there. Robert Kennedy, born in
Cultra,
County Down, was the
Government of Bermuda's
Colonial Secretary, and was the acting
Governor of Bermuda on three occasions (1829, 1830 and 1835–1836). Irish prisoners were again sent to Bermuda in the 19th century, including participants in the ill-fated
Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, nationalist journalist and politician
John Mitchel, and painter and convicted murderer
William Burke Kirwan. Alongside English convicts, they were used to build the
Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island. Conditions for the convicts were harsh, and discipline was draconian. In April, 1830, convict James Ryan was shot and killed during rioting of convicts on Ireland Island. Another five convicts were given death sentences for their parts in the riots, with those of the youngest three being commuted to transportation (to
Australia) for life. In June 1849 convict James
Cronin, on the hulk
Medway at Ireland Island, was placed in solitary confinement from the 25th to the 29th for fighting. On release, and being returned to work, he refused to be cross-ironed. He ran onto the breakwater, brandishing a poker threateningly. For this, he was ordered to receive punishment (presumably flogging) on Tuesday, 3 July 1849, with the other convicts aboard the hulk assembled behind a rail to witness. When ordered to strip, he hesitated. Thomas Cronin, his older brother, addressed him and, while brandishing a knife, rushed forward to the separating rail. He called out to the other prisoners in
Irish and many joined him in attempting to free the prisoner and attack the officers. The officers opened fire. Two men were killed and twelve wounded. Punishment of James Cronin was then carried out. Three hundred men of the
42nd Regiment of Foot, in barracks on Ireland Island, responded to the scene under arms. Although the
Roman Catholic Church (which had been banned in Bermuda, as in the rest of England, since settlement) began to operate openly in Bermuda in the 19th century, its priests were not permitted to conduct baptisms, weddings or funerals. As the most important British naval and military base in the Western Hemisphere following US independence, large numbers of Irish Roman Catholic soldiers served in the British Army's
Bermuda Garrison (the Royal Navy had also benefitted from a shipload of Irish emigres wrecked on Bermuda, with most being recruited into the navy there). The first Roman Catholic services in Bermuda were conducted by British Army chaplains early in the 19th century. Mount Saint Agnes Academy, a private school operated by the Roman Catholic Church of Bermuda, opened in 1890 at the behest of officers of the
86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot (which was posted to Bermuda from 1880 to 1883), who had requested from the
Archbishop of
Halifax, Nova Scotia, a school for the children of Irish Roman Catholic soldiers. Not all Irish soldiers in Bermuda had happy lives there. Private Joseph McDaniel of the
30th Regiment of Foot (who was born in the
East Indies to an Irish father and a
Malay mother) was convicted of the murder of Mary Swears in June, 1837, after he had been found with a self-inflicted wound and her lifeless body. Although he maintained his innocence throughout the trial, after his conviction he confessed that they had made a pact to die together. Although he had succeeded in killing her, he survived his suicide attempt. He was put to death on Wednesday, 29 November 1837. Private Patrick Shea of the
20th Regiment of Foot was sentenced to death in June 1846, for discharging his weapon at Sergeant John Evans. His sentence was commuted to transportation (to
Australia) for life. In October, 1841,
County Carlow-born Peter Doyle had also been transported to Australia for fourteen years for shooting at a picket. At his court martial he had explained that he had been drunk at the time. Other Irish soldiers, taking discharge, made a home in Bermuda, remaining there for the rest of their lives. Dublin-born Sapper Cornelius Farrell was discharged in Bermuda from the
Royal Engineers. His three Bermudian-born sons followed him into the army, fighting on the Western Front during the
First World War in the
Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps. Although there is little surviving evidence of Irish culture, some elderly islanders can remember when the term "cilig" (or
killick) was used to describe a common method of fishing for sea turtles by tricking them into swimming into prearranged nets (this was done by splashing a stone on a line—the cilig—into the water on the turtle's opposite side). The word
cilig appears to be meaningless in English, but in some dialects of Gaelic is used as an adjective meaning "easily deceived". In Irish there is a word
cílí meaning sly. It is used in the expression
Is é an cílí ceart é (pronounced
Shayeh kilic airtay) and means
What a sly-boots. Alternatively, the word may be derived from an Irish word for a stone and wood anchor. Characteristics of older Bermudian accents, such as the pronunciation of the letter 'd' as 'dj', as in
Bermudjin (Bermudian), may indicate an Irish origin. Later Irish immigrants have continued to contribute to Bermuda's makeup, with names like Crockwell (
Ó Creachmhaoil) and
O'Connor (
Ó Conchobhair) now being thought of locally as Bermudian names. The strongest remaining Irish influence can be seen in the presence of bagpipes in the
music of Bermuda, which stemmed from the presence of Scottish and Irish soldiers from the 18th through 20th centuries. Several prominent businesses in Bermuda have a clear Irish influence, such as the Irish Linen Shop, Tom Moore's Tavern and Flanagan's Irish Pub and Restaurant. A succession of Irish
Masonic lodges have existed in Bermuda, beginning with
Military Lodge #192, established by soldiers of the
47th Regiment of Foot, and operating in Bermuda from 1793 to 1801. This was an ambulatory or travelling lodge, as with other military lodges, moving with its members. Irish Lodges #220 (also a military travelling lodge) was active in Bermuda from 1856 to 1861, and Irish Lodge #209 was established in Bermuda in 1881. Minder Lodge #63 of the Irish Constitution was in Bermuda with the 20th Regiment of Foot from 1841 to 1847. The Hannibal Lodge #224 of the Irish Constitution was warranted in 1867, and still exists, meeting in the Masonic Hall on Old Maid's Lane,
St. George's. Another Hannibal Chapter, #123 of the Irish Constitution, was chartered in 1877, but lasted only until 1911.
Brazil The first known Irish settler in Brazil was a missionary,
Thomas Field, who arrived to Brazil in late 1577 and spent three years in Piratininga (present-day
São Paulo). In 1612, the Irish brothers Philip and James Purcell established a colony in Tauregue, at the mouth of the Amazon river, where English, Dutch, and French settlements were also established. Many of the colonists traded in tobacco, dyes, and hardwoods. A second group of Irish settlers led by Bernardo O'Brien of County Clare arrived in 1620.
Canada The 2006 census by Statcan, Canada's Official Statistical office revealed that the Irish were the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,354,155 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent or 14% of the nation's total population. During the 2016 census by Statistics Canada, the Irish ethnicity retained its spot as the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,627,000 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent. After the permanent settlement in Newfoundland by Irish in the late 18th and early 19th century, overwhelmingly from
County Waterford, increased immigration of the Irish elsewhere in Canada began in the decades following the
War of 1812 and formed a significant part of
The Great Migration of Canada. Between 1825 and 1845, 60% of all immigrants to Canada were Irish; in 1831 alone, some 34,000 arrived in Montreal. Between 1830 and 1850, 624,000 Irish arrived; in contextual terms, at the end of this period, the population of the provinces of Canada was 2.4 million. Besides
Upper Canada (Ontario),
Lower Canada (Quebec), the Maritime colonies of
Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island and
New Brunswick, especially
Saint John, were arrival points. Not all remained; many out-migrated to the United States or to Western Canada in the decades that followed. Few returned to Ireland. Many
Newfoundlanders are of Irish descent. It is estimated that about 80% of Newfoundlanders have Irish ancestry on at least one side of their family tree. The family names, the predominant Roman Catholic religion, the prevalence of Irish music – even the accents of the people – are so reminiscent of rural Ireland that Irish author
Tim Pat Coogan has described Newfoundland as
"the most Irish place in the world outside Ireland".
Newfoundland Irish, the dialect of the
Irish language specific to the island was widely spoken until the mid-20th century. It is very similar to the language heard in the southeast of Ireland centuries ago, due to mass emigration from counties
Tipperary,
Waterford,
Wexford,
Kerry and
Cork.
Saint John, New Brunswick, claims the distinction of being Canada's most Irish city, according to census records. There have been Irish settlers in
New Brunswick since at least the late 18th century, but during the peak of the
Great Irish Famine (1845–1847), thousands of Irish emigrated through Partridge Island in the port of Saint John. Most of these Irish were Roman Catholic, who changed the complexion of the Loyalist city. A large, vibrant Irish community can also be found in the
Miramichi region of
New Brunswick.
Guysborough County, Nova Scotia has many rural Irish villages. Erinville (which means Irishville), Salmon River, Ogden, Bantry (named after
Bantry Bay,
County Cork, Ireland but now abandoned and grown up in trees) among others, where Irish last names are prevalent and the accent is reminiscent of the
Irish as well as the music, traditions, religion (
Roman Catholic), and the love of Ireland itself. Some of the Irish counties from which these people arrived were
County Kerry (
Dingle Peninsula),
County Cork, and
County Roscommon, along with others.
Quebec is also home to a large Irish community, especially in
Montreal, where the Irish
shamrock is featured on the
municipal flag. Notably, thousands of Irish emigrants during the Famine passed through
Grosse Isle near Québec City, where many succumbed to
typhus. Most of the Irish who settled near Québec City are now French speakers. Irish Catholic settlers also opened up new agricultural areas in the recently surveyed
Eastern Townships, the
Ottawa Valley, and
Gatineau and
Pontiac counties. Irish from Quebec would also settle in communities such as Frampton, Saint Sylvestre, and Saint Patrick in the Beauce region of southeastern Quebec.
Ontario has over 2 million people of Irish descent, who in greater numbers arrived in the 1820s and the decades that followed to work on colonial infrastructure and to settle land tracts in Upper Canada, the result today is a countryside speckled with the place names of Ireland. Ontario received a large number of those who landed in Quebec during the Famine years, many thousands died in Ontario's ports. Irish-born became the majority in
Toronto by 1851.
Caribbean From the 1620s, many of the Irish Roman Catholic merchant class in this period migrated voluntarily to the West Indies to avail of the business opportunities there occasioned by the trade in sugar, tobacco and cotton. They were followed by landless Irish indentured labourers, who were recruited to serve a landowner for a specified time before receiving freedom and land. The descendants of some Irish immigrants are known today in the West Indies as
redlegs. Most descendants of these Irishmen moved off the islands as
African slavery was implemented and blacks began to replace whites. Many Barbadian-born Irishmen helped establish the
Carolina colony in the United States. After
the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland Irish prisoners were forcibly transferred to English colonies in the Americas and sold into
indentured servitude, a practice that came to be known as being
Barbadosed, though Barbados was not the only colony to receive Irish prisoners, with those sent to
Montserrat being the best known. To this day, Montserrat is the only country or territory in the world, apart from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Canadian province of
Newfoundland to observe a public holiday on
St Patrick's Day. The population is predominantly of mixed Irish and African descent.
Puerto Rico Irish immigrants played an instrumental role in Puerto Rico's economy. One of the most important industries of the island was the sugar industry. Among the successful businessmen in this industry were Miguel Conway, who owned a plantation in the town of
Hatillo and Juan Nagle whose plantation was located in
Río Piedras. General
Alexander O'Reilly, "Father of the Puerto Rican Militia", named Tomas O'Daly chief engineer of modernising the defences of San Juan, this included the fortress of
San Cristóbal. Puerto Ricans of Irish descent were also instrumental in the development of the island's tobacco industry. Among them Miguel Conboy who was a founder of the tobacco trade in Puerto Rico. Other notable places in the Caribbean include: •
Antigua and Barbuda •
Barbados •
Jamaica •
Saint Kitts and Nevis •
Saint Lucia •
Trinidad and Tobago Colombia The presence and impact of the Irish in Colombia dates back to the time of Spanish rule, when in different historical periods they migrated to the
Iberian Peninsula and from there to the American continent, enlisted in the colonization, trade, army and administration companies. One episode in which this group had a special impact was the colonization of the Darien (
Gulf of Urabá) in 1788. In this place 64 families and 50 single individuals from
North America were established, to which were added families from the interior. Of these families, 28 were of Irish origin, which shows their numerical importance and valuation as an emerging social group within the Hispanic world. There is no doubt that the greatest concentration and contributions to the country occurred during the emancipation campaigns. It is enough to look at the list drawn up by researcher Matthew Brown to understand their importance and impact, for out of some 6,808 Europeans, the Irish represented 48%; we are talking about more than 3,000 Irish who fought to give freedom to Colombia. These would have come enlisted in the Irish Legion, where they were famous officers like: Casey, Devereux, Egan, Ferguson, Foley, Lanagan, Rooke, Larkin, McCarthy, Murphy, O'Leary, O'Connell, O'Connor and Sanders.
Mexico The
County Wexford born
William Lamport, better known to most Mexicans as Guillén de Lampart, was a precursor of the Independence movement and author of the first proclamation of independence in the New World. His statue stands today inside the column of the Angel of Independence in
Mexico City, Mexico.
Juan de O'Donojú y O'Ryan, of Irish descent, was the last Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), died and is buried in Mexico City. Among the most famous Irishmen in Mexican history are "Los Patricios" of
Saint Patrick's Battalion. Many communities existed in
Mexican Texas until the
revolution there, when they sided with Roman Catholic Mexico against Protestant pro-US elements. The
Batallón de San Patricio, a battalion of US troops who deserted and fought alongside the
Mexican Army against the United States in the
Mexican–American War of 1846–1848, is well known in
Mexican history. The most well known of these was
Major John Riley. Mexico also has a large number of people of Irish ancestry, among them the actor
Anthony Quinn. There are monuments in Mexico City paying tribute to those Irish who fought for Mexico in the 19th century. There is a monument to Los Patricios in the fort of Churubusco. During the
Great Famine, thousands of Irish immigrants entered the country. Other notable Mexicans of Irish descent are
Romulo O'Farril,
Juan O'Gorman, and
Edmundo O'Gorman.
United States The first Irish came to modern day America during the 1600s mostly to Virginia and mostly indentured servants. The diaspora to the United States was immortalised in the words of many songs including the Irish
ballad, "The Green Fields of America": So pack up your sea-stores, consider no longer, Ten dollars a week is not very bad pay, With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages, When you're on the green fields of Americay. The experience of Irish immigrants in the United States has not always been harmonious. The US did not have a good relationship with most of the incoming Irish because of their Roman Catholic faith, as the majority of the population was Protestant and had been originally formed by offshoots of the Protestant faith, many of whom were from the north of Ireland (Ulster). So it came as no surprise that the federal government issued new immigration acts, adding to previous ones which limited Eastern European immigration, ones which limited the immigration of the Irish. Those who were successful in coming over from Ireland were for the most part already good farmers and other hard labour workers, so the jobs they were taking were plentiful in the beginning. However, as time went on and the land needed less cultivation, the jobs the new Irish immigrants were taking were those that Americans wanted as well. In most cases, Irish newcomers were sometimes uneducated and often found themselves competing with Americans for manual labour jobs or, in the 1860s, being recruited from the docks by the US Army to serve in the
American Civil War and afterward to build the Union Pacific Railroad. This view of the Irish-American experience is depicted by another traditional song, "Paddy's Lamentation." Hear me boys, now take my advice, To America I'll have ye's not be going, There is nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar, And I wish I was at home in dear old Ireland. The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led to a certain extent by racist and anti-
Catholic stereotypes. In modern times, in the United States, the Irish are largely perceived as hard workers. Most notably they are associated with the positions of police officer,
firefighter,
Roman Catholic Church leaders and politicians in the larger
Eastern Seaboard metropolitan areas. Irish Americans number over 35 million, making them the second largest reported ethnic group in the country, after
German Americans. Historically, large Irish American communities have been found in
Philadelphia; Chicago;
Boston; New York City;
New York; Detroit;
New England;
Washington, D.C.;
Baltimore;
Pittsburgh;
Cleveland;
St. Paul, Minnesota;
Buffalo;
Broome County;
Butte;
Dubuque;
Quincy;
Dublin;
Hartford;
New Haven;
Waterbury;
Providence;
Kansas City;
New Orleans;
Savannah;
Braintree;
Weymouth;
Norfolk;
Nashville;
Scranton;
Wilkes-Barre;
O'Fallon;
Tampa;
Hazleton;
Worcester;
Lowell;
Los Angeles; and the
San Francisco Bay Area. Many cities across the country have annual St Patrick's Day parades;
The nation's largest is in New York City—one of the world's largest parades. The parade in Boston is closely associated with
Evacuation Day, when the British left Boston in 1776 during the
American War of Independence. Before the
Great Hunger, in which over a million died and more emigrated, there had been the
Penal Laws which had already resulted in significant emigration from Ireland. According to the
Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, in 1790 there were 400,000 Americans of Irish birth or ancestry out of a total white population of 3,100,000. Half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster people, and half were descended from the people of
Connacht,
Leinster and
Munster. According to US census figures from 2000, 41,000,000 Americans claim to be wholly or partly of Irish ancestry, a group that represents more than one in five white Americans. Some
African Americans are part of the Irish diaspora, as they are descended from Irish or
Scots-Irish slave owners and overseers who arrived in America during the colonial era. The US Census Bureau's data from 2016 reveals that Irish ancestry is one of the most commonly reported ancestries. Even though Irish immigration is extremely small relative to the scope of current migration, Irish ancestry is one of the most common ancestries in the United States because of the events that took place over a century ago. The enduring nature of
Irish-American identity is exemplified by
the widespread celebration of
St.Patrick's Day, the national day of Ireland, across the United States. The traditional St. Patrick's Day parade having developed, in its modern form, in the United States itself. The largest such parade in the world is the
New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade which features in the region of 150,000 participants and 2,000,000 spectators annually, with thousands of parades of all sizes across the United States. ==Asia==