Irish History

History of Irish in Connecticut.

Ireland, though quite small, is still more than six times the size of Connecticut. Often referred to as the Emerald Isle due to the rich greens of its dewy fields, it is home to four and a half million Irish who have had a major impact on the world as well as the development of the United States. Almost one-fifth of Ireland's national income is garnered from agriculture, which also accounts for nearly half of the country's exports. Even more surprisingly, approximately twenty-nine percent of Ireland's workforce are farmers. Because of numerous crop hardships this number has been on a sharp decline since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and many Irish have been forced to emigrate from their homeland, leaving the rural countryside to become successful town and city dwellers.

No one knows for sure when the first Irishmen came to the United States. According to legend, St. Brendan, a famous Irish navigator, sailed west from Kerry, Ireland, to what is now part of Florida in 577 A.D., almost a thousand years before Columbus. Irish voyagers are also credited with the discovery of other lands, such as the Faroe Islands and Iceland, as well documentation that the navigators of all three of Columbus's ships were of Irish origin. After the discovery of the New World, many Irish nobleman helped to establish the original thirteen colonies, which would eventually become the United States of America.

Currently, there are many Irish immigrants in the New England area. The first Irish to immigrate to what is now known as Connecticut were noblemen by the name of Riley, who settled in the Connecticut River Valley between 1634 and 1640. Another Irish immigrant, Darby Field, also explored the White Mountains with a group of Indian guides, and eventually aided in the settlement of the Connecticut area. In 1640, a group of Irish refugees came from the West Indies to New Haven, among which were William Collins, an educated gentleman who taught school at Hartford for a while before moving to Boston. There, he got into some trouble with church officials and they had him banished to Rhode Island. Coincidentally, Collins married into the infamous Hutchinson family, which left Rhode Island due to religious tension and migrated to Westchester, where they were ultimately killed during a Native uprising. The invasion of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell also forced many Irish to seek asylum in America, among which was Edmund Fanning of Limerick, who settled in Groton, Connecticut. Many of his descendants are still living in Connecticut today.

Although the Irish were often unwelcome colonists due to their religious faith, they continued come to America, helping to build up the America to the country that it is today. For example, Edward Joseph Brennan, the son of an Irish immigrant, founded St. Margret=s parish in Waterbury and watched it become one of the largest churches in the community. Another prominent Irish citizen, Patrick S. McMahon, established the Strickland House, one of the oldest hotels in Connecticut, as well as a partnership in the Hartford Playhouse theater. Many other Irish held the offices of prominent attorneys, lawyers, doctors, and government officials in and around Connecticut, illustrating the resilience of the Irish and their ability to succeed in professions where there had been few Irish, rising above the attainments of those before them, who had come to America as farmers with the dream of securing a better life for themselves and the generations to follow.