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Through Irish Eyes |
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It's difficult to imagine an America without the Irish. No Kennedys, no St. Patrick's Day parades, no Henry Ford, no Judy Garland, no Great Gatsby. Not even a McCarthy to wage war on the Communists. The relationship between the Irish and the Americans is complicated, but what is without question is that their histories in good times and bad are inextricably linked – a relationship that has shaped the cultural and social fabric of two nations on either side of the Atlantic. Casual observers of Irish-American history might think it all started with the Great Irish Potato Famine – five long years of potato blight in Ireland in the 1840s that left a million Irish dead and saw another 650,000 head for the New York harbor. But in fact, the affair of the two great nations started much earlier with the onset of the industrial revolution and America’s hunger for a transport system linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Construction of the Erie Canal brought 55,000 Irishmen to the Erie region, and today their legacy continues to shape our region’s personality. In the month we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I met with six Irish men and women who by marriage, birth, commercial consequence, or education have made Erie their home and Ireland their passion. |
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