The Irish standard., 1916-01-22
THE IRISH IN AMERICA

ton to the building of the fabric of
American institutions and the sons Of
the Irish merit more prominent recog.
milton than has been accorded them
in the pages of American history.
1T must now be an accepted and
undisputed fact that very large pro-
portion of the earlier settlers in the
American colonies were of Irish blood,
for the Irish have been coming here
since the beginning Of the English
colonization. Only 20 years before
the King Philip war (1675), the gov
eminent Of England was asked to pro-
vide law to prevent the importation
of Irish Papists and convicts that are
yearly poured upon us and to make
provisions against the growth of this
pernicious evil,' and the colonies them
selves prohibited the bringing over
of any Irish man, woman or children
into this jurisdiction on the penalty
of SO pounds sterling to such persons
SO transported by them This order
was promulgated by the court of Mas
sachusetts in October, 1854, yet these
same 'convicts' and their descendants
were always the first to respond to
the call to arms for this country. On
the roster of the colonial militia which
fought in the King Philip war in 1873
are found names of 10 soldiers Of
Irish birth.
ITO form a reliable estimate of the
numerical strength of the Irish then
in America is hopeless task, the
greatest obstacle being in the names
of immigrants themselves, many Of
whom were forced to adopt English
names to avoid prejudice and also the
difficulty of pronouncing Gaelic names,
together with no records of unmar-
ried persons being kept. No nation
has contributed so much to the popu-
lation of America as Ireland, and from
the year 1649 to 1859 the annual emf
grafton from Ireland was 5000 souls,
making $4,000 souls, one.half the pop
ulation of the United States at that
time. In 1918 one of the largest sin
gle colonies of Irish arrived in Boston,
all of whom settled in this common
wealth. So great and so continuous
was the Irish immigration that in
1887 the Irish of Boston gathered to-
gether and formed the Irish Charita-
BILE Society, an organization which ex-
lists today.
During the years 1911, 1872 and
1873 the numbers leaving ireland for
America was $4,000; from 1880 to
1907 it was 6,049,432. Whether they
came as voluntary exiles or we're driv-
en- from their homes by the persecu-
ton Of government, we are able to
show at all times her SONS have had
an honorable part in every upward
movement in American life.
I'm the social organization of no ma
ton of antiquity were societies of
greater influence than in Pagan Ire
land.
'The A. o. H. during it's existence
has donated $2O,0O0,000 to works of
beneficence. One Of the most cele-
brated was the endowment of the
chair of Celtic in the Catholic univer-
sity of America, and another great
gift was $4,000 to the sufferers of
the San Francisco earthquake.
'The Ladies' Auxiliary of the A. o.
H. was founded in 1894, numbered
$4,000 in 1914 and has donated great
sums to charity, education and reli-
gion. Among other societies are the
Clan Ma Gael, Friendly Sons of St.
Patrick, Charitable Irish Society, Land
League and scores of others composed
Of Irishmen and Irish-Americans.
IFS the. American republic indebted
to the Irish citizen? It is our duty
and happy privilege, the duty of each
and every individual of Irish blood or
race to remind and forcibly acknowl.
edge the place of the Irish in the de-
velorment of these United States"