Irish-American Heritage Month on March, 2024: American Heritage Month - Irish American Heritage Month?

March, 2024 is Irish-American Heritage Month 2024. Irish-American Heritage Month is a special proclamation issued yearly by the United States President or Congress to honor the achievements and contributions of Irish immigrants and their descendants living in the United States.

Irish-American Heritage Month is a special proclamation issued yearly by the United States President or Congress to honor the achievements and contributions of Irish immigrants and their descendants living in the United States.

To the poster who stated that African Americans were sent to the Americas and Caribbean as slaves, SO TOO WERE THE IRISH. African American Historian Leronne Bennett describes the capture and transportation of Irish Slaves as being identical to African Slaves and states that many of the later African Slavers got their experience and capital from the Irish Slave trade. 50,000 Irish were sent to Barbados alone. The first "witch" hung in Boston was Ann Glover, an Irish Slave who was a convenient scapegoat for "unexplained happenings".

To the other poster who stated that African American make up the second largest demograpich in the United States, wrong: Per the US. Census Irish Americans make up 23% of the US Population, African Americans make up 12.4% (BTW Latino Americans make up 15.4% )

The fact that American are so unknowing of these facts is the reason we need Irish American Heritage Month, The biggest issue is that Irish American Heritage month is issued as a yearly Proclamation, it has never been made a law (as have been Jewish Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month etc). This allows public institutions to ignore it. Many of us are trying to correct this. Best suggestion is to write your Congressional and Senate representatives.

For inspiration, see this video :

Culture: Do you think Irish-American heritage month is racist?

Isn't Black history month also racist in that context then? Black history month is meant to observe the strife, struggles, triumphs of Africans in America. Why is it racist for us Irish to also obverse those things? We have had a history of struggle, that would rival African Americans; beginning in medieval Times, which the invation of Ireland by Normans and later the vikings. And the murder of 1000s of Catholics by Cromwell, (not to mention he sent off 1000s more Irish to work as slaves in the Caribbean) and the reason most Irish left Ireland was Britain did NOTHING amidst two major famines forcing men, women children to leave their home country or die in filth and hunger. Once here the journey did not end! Due to an anti-catholic feeling in the late 1840s and 50s employers would not hire them , as they were seen as illegal immigrants. Some "Native Born" Americans felt denining them work was not good enough. Mobs would enter catholic slums in Boston and burn them, beat them rape the women. Irish born serviceman were given harsher punishment for breaking rules in the army. For example, during the end of the Mexican War three soldiers robbed and murdered a Mexican woman in her home. The two Americans were sentenced to life in a military prison, the Irish born solider was placed in front of a firing squad.

If think we Irish don't deserve a month to reflect on all we have faced and struggled through and achieved in our coming to the United States, maybe we are not the racists?