St. Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patrick's Day, an Irish and Irish-American holiday commemorating the death, as legend has it, of Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, on March 17, circa 492. In many American cities it is time for celebrating Irish heritage with a parade. Among the most renowned are the Boston parade, which dates to March 17, 1737; the New York City parade, which dates to March 17, 1762; and the Savannah, Georgia, parade, which dates to March 17, 1812. In New York City in 1879, when St. Patrick's Cathedral was completed the parade was extended up Fifth Avenue in order to allow the archbishop to review the parade while standing in front of the church. On St. Patrick’s Day in NYC everyone is Irish!

As a consequence of Ireland's potato famine of 1845-49, which left more than a million dead of starvation many immigrated to America. Most of the Irish who came to the U.S. during this period arrived with little education and few material possessions. They encountered discrimination in jobs and housing searches, and endured the longstanding prejudice of many members of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority toward both the Irish and Catholicism. The US Civil War provided an occasion for Irish immigrants to prove their worth as U.S. citizens and they earned a reputation for bravery and sacrifice in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War! "these Celtic soldiers were fighting most of all for their own future and an America which did not segregate, persecute, and discriminate against the Irish people and their Catholicism, Irish culture, and distinctive Celtic heritage like the hated English in the old country.