Irish around the world

     I’m going to talk about the large number of Irish immigrants there are in the world. Why is this so? Well, many Irishmen during the nineteenth century, emigrated to different parts of the world due to the fact that Ireland wasn’t in its best moment. Ireland was suffering from the called Great Famine (or as the Irish say; An Gorta Mór). This horrible situation was caused by a potato disease. And because of this, and other issues, two million Irish citizens decided to search for a new start, mainly in places such as: Great Britain, United States, Canada, Argentina or Australia. This phenomenon was known as the Irish Diaspora (Diaspóra na nGael).

     A  large majority moved to the United States since it was considered a country of prosperity and freedom. I suppose it was easier for the Irish as they also speak the language. To be more concrete, you can find plenty of Irishmen in the east coast of the country, especially in New York or Boston and other large populations in Philadelphia and Chicago. There are currently over 35 million Irish immigrants in the United States, making it the second-largest ethnic group, behind German-Americans.

     If you ever go to any of these cities you should be on the lookout for: ‘Bronx, Riverdale’ (NY), ‘Charlestown’ (Boston) or ‘Beverly’ (Chicago). These are Irish neighborhoods, where you can really appreciate the Irish influence.

     In fact, the Irish influence is so big that the Americans celebrate St Patrick’s Day with a huge parade. And if you happen to be in Chicago that day, you’ll see that they turn the Chicago river green for this celebration.

                    

     As I mentioned before, not only did they migrate to the US. Great Britain also has a big number of Irish people living there. ‘Kilburn’ (London) or Manchester are other areas where the Irish are predominant.

      Canada also has a large number of Irishmen. It is the 4^th largest ethnic group with over 4 million Canadians (14%) with full or part Irish descent. Over two million live in Ontario. The majority arrived in the 1820s to work and settle there. As a result, the countryside is full of neighborhoods and places with names from Ireland. One of these is Corktown, named after the descendents from Cork County. 

Sources: http://www.greenchicagoriver.com/story.html
               http://www.irishtimes.com/timeseye/whoweare/p8topa.htm