Editing Irish diaspora (section)

===United States===
{{Main|Irish Americans}}
The first Irish came to modern day America during the 1600s mostly to Virginia and mostly indentured servants.
The diaspora to the United States was immortalised in the words of many songs including the Irish [[ballad]], "The Green Fields of America":

<blockquote><poem>
So pack up your sea-stores, consider no longer,
Ten dollars a week is not very bad pay,
With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages,
When you're on the green fields of Americay.
</poem></blockquote>

The experience of Irish immigrants in the United States has not always been harmonious. The US did not have a good relationship with most of the incoming Irish because of their Roman Catholic faith, as the majority of the population was Protestant and had been originally formed by offshoots of the Protestant faith, many of whom were from the north of Ireland (Ulster).<ref>Patricia I. Folan Sebben, "U.S. Immigration Law, Irish Immigration and Diversity: Cead Mile Failte (A Thousand Times Welcome)", in ''Georgetown Immigration Law Journal'', Vol. 6 Issue 4 (1992): 750</ref> So it came as no surprise that the federal government issued new immigration acts, adding to previous ones which limited Eastern European immigration, ones which limited the immigration of the Irish.<ref>Patricia I. Folan Sebben, "U.S. Immigration Law, Irish Immigration and Diversity: Cead Mile Failte (A Thousand Times Welcome)", in ''Georgetown Immigration Law Journal'', Vol. 6 Issue 4 (1992): 751–752.</ref>

Those who were successful in coming over from Ireland were for the most part already good farmers and other hard labour workers, so the jobs they were taking were plentiful in the beginning. However, as time went on and the land needed less cultivation, the jobs the new Irish immigrants were taking were those that Americans wanted as well.<ref>Patricia I. Folan Sebben, "U.S. Immigration Law, Irish Immigration and Diversity: Cead Mile Failte (A Thousand Times Welcome)", in Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Vol. 6 Issue 4 (1992): 750.</ref> 
In most cases, Irish newcomers were sometimes uneducated and often found themselves competing with Americans for manual labour jobs or, in the 1860s, being recruited from the docks by the US Army to serve in the [[American Civil War]] and afterward to build the Union Pacific Railroad.<ref>{{cite book|last=Collins|first=R.M.|title=Irish Gandy Dancer: A tale of building the Transcontinental Railroad|year=2010|publisher=Create Space|location=Seattle|isbn=978-1-4528-2631-8|page=198}}</ref> This view of the Irish-American experience is depicted by another traditional song, "Paddy's Lamentation."

<blockquote><poem>
Hear me boys, now take my advice,
To America I'll have ye's not be going,
There is nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar,
And I wish I was at home in dear old Ireland.
</poem></blockquote>

The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led to a certain extent by racist and anti-[[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] stereotypes. In modern times, in the United States, the Irish are largely perceived as hard workers. Most notably they are associated with the positions of police officer, [[firefighter]], [[Roman Catholic Church]] leaders and politicians in the larger [[East Coast of the United States|Eastern Seaboard]] metropolitan areas. Irish Americans number over 35 million, making them the second largest reported ethnic group in the country, after [[German American]]s. Historically, large Irish American communities have been found in [[Philadelphia]]; Chicago; [[Boston]]; New York City; [[New York (state)|New York]]; Detroit; [[New England]]; [[Washington, D.C.]]; [[Baltimore]]; [[Pittsburgh]]; [[Cleveland]]; [[St. Paul, Minnesota]]; [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]]; [[Broome County]]; [[Butte, Montana|Butte]]; [[Dubuque, Iowa|Dubuque]]; [[Quincy, Massachusetts|Quincy]]; [[Dublin, Ohio|Dublin]]; [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]]; [[New Haven]]; [[Waterbury]]; [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]]; [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]]; [[New Orleans]]; [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]]; [[Braintree, Massachusetts|Braintree]]; [[Weymouth, Massachusetts|Weymouth]]; [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]]; [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]]; [[Scranton]]; [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania|Wilkes-Barre]]; [[O'Fallon, Missouri|O'Fallon]]; [[Tampa]]; [[Hazleton, Pennsylvania|Hazleton]]; [[Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester]]; [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]]; [[Los Angeles]]; and the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]. Many cities across the country have annual St Patrick's Day parades; [[Saint Patrick's Day#Parades|The nation's largest is in New York City]]—one of the world's largest parades. The parade in Boston is closely associated with [[Evacuation Day (Massachusetts)|Evacuation Day]], when the British left Boston in 1776 during the [[American War of Independence]].

Before the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Hunger]], in which over a million died and more emigrated,<ref>{{Cite book|last=O'Hara|first=Megan|title=Irish Immigrants: 1840–1920|publisher=Capstone Press|year=2002|pages=6, 10|location=Mankato, MN|series=Blue Earth Books: Coming to America|isbn=978-0-7368-0795-1}}</ref> there had been the [[Penal Laws (Ireland)|Penal Laws]] which had already resulted in significant emigration from Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.emmigration.info/irish-immigration-to-america.htm|title=Irish Immigration to America: History for kids ***|website=Emmigration.info|access-date=2017-02-16|archive-date=19 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230919064058/https://www.emmigration.info/irish-immigration-to-america.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to the ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'', in 1790 there were 400,000 Americans of Irish birth or ancestry out of a total white population of 3,100,000. Half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster people, and half were descended from the people of [[Connacht]], [[Leinster]] and [[Munster]].

According to US census figures from 2000, 41,000,000 Americans claim to be wholly or partly of Irish ancestry, a group that represents more than one in five white Americans. Some [[African Americans]] are part of the Irish diaspora, as they are descended from Irish or [[Scotch-Irish American|Scots-Irish]] slave owners and overseers who arrived in America during the colonial era.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hess|first=Mary A.|title=Scottish and scots-irish americans|url=http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Scottish-and-Scotch-Irish-Americans.html|website=Everyculture.com|access-date=20 June 2014|archive-date=25 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825040557/http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Scottish-and-Scotch-Irish-Americans.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Wiethoff|first=William E.|title=Crafting the Overseer's Image|publisher=University of South Carolina press.|page=71|date=2006|isbn=1-57003-646-2}}</ref> The US Census Bureau's data from 2016 reveals that Irish ancestry is one of the most common reported ancestries reported (in the top 3 most common ancestries reported). Even though Irish immigration is extremely small relative to the scope of current migration, Irish ancestry is one of the most common ancestries in the United States because of the events that took place over a century ago.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Community Facts |url=https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326060336/https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml |archive-date=March 26, 2015 |access-date=April 25, 2024}}</ref>

The enduring nature of [[Irish-American]] identity is exemplified by [[Saint Patrick's Day in the United States|the widespread celebration]] of [[St.Patrick's Day]], the national day of Ireland, across the United States. The traditional St. Patrick's Day parade having developed, in its modern form, in the United States itself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/news/st-patricks-day-origins-america|title=How St. Patrick's Day Took on New Life in America|website=history.com|date=22 February 2023|access-date=18 March 2022|archive-date=19 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230919055618/https://www.history.com/news/st-patricks-day-origins-america|url-status=live}}</ref> The largest such parade in the world is the [[New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade]] which features in the region of 150,000 participants and 2,000,000 spectators annually, with thousands of parades of all sizes across the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://abc7ny.com/archive/6024736/|title=St. Patrick's Day Parade strolls up 5th Avenue|website=ABC7 New York|date=March 17, 2008|access-date=18 March 2022|archive-date=24 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624234626/https://abc7ny.com/archive/6024736/|url-status=live}}</ref>