3. Irish Immigration The Great Potato Famine lasted from 1845 to 1852. This famine is what caused there to be so many Irish immigrants in our country. Between 1820 and 1860 over 2/3 of the American Immigrant population consisted of Irish people. But in the 1840’s over half of the American immigrant population were Irish people.

4. Traditions Halloween is one tradition that the Irish immigrants brought to our country. St. Patrick's Day is another one of the many traditions the Irish immigrants brought to America. In Ireland Halloween is called All Hallows Eve or All Saints Day. St. Patrick’s Day is called by it’s name because it is a day to honor the saint who taught the Irish not be so superstitious and that God was not a superstition.

5. How we Celebrate! The Chicago river is dyed green every year on St. Patrick’s Day. They have a parade and nominate a parade queen. Julie Popp 2009 Queen

6. Irish People You May know John F. Kennedy Mother Jones George M. Cohan James Braddock Michael J. McGivney James Michael Curley Victor Herbert Eugene O'Neill Ed Sullivan JFK Ed Sullivan

7. Why are these things important? If Irish immigrants hadn’t come to our country we wouldn’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or Halloween. It’s important to know why we have holidays and to know where the traditions for them come from. Ireland is not the only country that some of our traditions and holidays come from. Mexico, Russia, China, and Italy are all a few examples of countries where we get food, holidays, and traditions from.

8. Examples For example we wouldn’t have all the potato dishes we have now if Irish immigrants hadn’t come to our country. We wouldn’t have tacos if we didn’t have Mexican immigrants. We also wouldn’t have pizza if we didn’t have Italian immigrants.

9. Our Point We want people to understand that some things we do in our daily lives come from different cultures. And also learn to respect the people of these different cultures. Our country’s traditions and it’s culture is made up of the traditions and cultures of different countries. Some people say that America is like a big melting pot. Meaning that our country’s traditions and culture come from different countries. Our country’s melting pot has different people of different races and cultures, but when they are melted together they form the traditions of our country. And Ireland is but one of them.