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Irish American History Timeline
1960 John Fitzgerald Kennedy elected President. He is the great-grandson of Patrick Kennedy an Irish immigrant who came to the U.S. as a laborer in 1848.
1880 William R. Grace becomes New York City's first Irish-Catholic Mayor. Political clout leads to increased opportunities for the Irish.
1845- 1852 The Irish Potato Famine lasted five years, and left more than one million persons dead. Another half million left for America on overloaded, filthy ships, called “coffin ships” due to the number of deaths on-board from disease.
September 1845
A mysterious blight affects the potato crops, causing them to rot. The potato was the primary food source for more than 3 million impoverished Irish. The blight was later found to be a fungus.
1825 The massive Erie Canal, which connects the New York’s Hudson River to Lake Erie is completed, due in large measure to the backbreaking work of Irish immigrants who were paid a dollar a day.
1798- 1780 Irish rebel against British Rule; rebellion is ended by British Forces. Ireland is made part of the United Kingdom; the Independent Irish Parliament is abolished.
1700's By this time, nearly a quarter million of Irish Protestants, the so-called “Scotch Irish” had immigrated to America. Most were educated, skilled workers. Nearly half of General Washington’s army was of Irish descent.
1661 Wealthy Irishman Charles Carroll immigrates to North America; his descendent, another Charles Carroll, signed the Declaration of Independence.
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