A total of 36,278,332 Americans or 11.9-percent of the population reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans is German Americans. Of more than 3,500 Irish surnames, Smith is the most popular in the U.S.
Approximately 200,000 Irish came to America in the 1600s and 1700s. From 1820 to 1860 Irish immigration increased to 1,956,557 with 75 percent arriving after the Great Irish Famine. Between 1860 and 1900, another 1,916,547 arrived. After the Civil War in New York City, Chicago and Boston, over a quarter of the population had been born in Ireland.
During the Potato Famine,1845 and 1852, approximately 1 million Irish died from starvation. One-third of the population was dependent on the potato for food. More than a million left Ireland reducing the country's population by between 20 and 25 percent. Remembering their own Trail of Tears, Native American Choctaws collected $710 for the Irish.
In the 1800s farming was the major industry in Ireland. Most land was owned by English landowners. Farm laborers averaged eight pence a day — a fifth of US farm wage. For the price of their of passage many Irish indentured themselves while others found work building canals and civil projects.
Presidents — James Buchanan, Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton; Notables — Molly Brown, Billy the Kid (William McCarty) Eileen Collins and Henry Ford, Athletes — Jimmy Connors, Ben Hogan, John McEnroe, Mark McGwire, Danica Patrick, Nolan Ryan and Sam Snead.
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