It was the greatest devastation that Ireland had ever known.
It was the greatest devastation that Ireland had ever known.
For six successive seasons from 1845 the potato crop failed. To most of the Irish who lived a life in which potatoes were the chief staple it meant disaster.
While blight rotted the crops in the field, thousands of families had to use rent money to buy food, and their landlords turned them out of their poor homes.
Starvation swept the land and the very young and very old were the first casualties. But soon, thousands, then tens of thousands died. The parish priests did what they could but had to choose between buying coffins or using what money they could get to feed the poor, so many were buried only in their clothing.
Desperate families somehow scrimped together enough money to pay for the passage of one of their number to come to another nation to find work. They went to England, other parts of Europe, Australia, South America and Canada, and many made their way to the United States.
It was a land of opportunity for despite the slums to which their poverty condemned them, work was available. It was often hard – even brutal – and sometimes demeaning but it enabled them to live and even to put aside a few pennies toward the fare from Ireland for another family member.
Eventually the situation improved and the refugees found better jobs as policemen, maids and shop clerks. But some among them dreamed in richer colors and looked to the West where a very fortunate man might strike it rich in the gold fields and where he might acquire a bit of land.
And so they came by wagon train, by ship and by stagecoach. The railroad provided jobs and a way west for those willing to work hard. Some Irish were vagabonds, and some criminals but most were hard-working men and women who wanted more than anything to raise families in better circumstances they had been raised.
And everywhere they went, they took with them the qualities their parents taught them – perseverance in the face of adversity, a wry humor that sustained them, and an abiding faith in their church. They became businessmen and businesswomen, teachers, city and county officials, landowners, priests, actors, musicians, athletes and even statesmen.
Their vigor has enriched every state of the nation. San Benito County has streets and buildings named for earlier settlers of Irish descent, and today’s population is rich with names like O’Neill, Ford, Sullivan, Breen, Kennedy, O’Brien, McLaughlin, Dooling and O’Donnell.
Today, St. Patrick’s Day, is special to them for it is a reminder of their heritage. Many non-Irish residents join them in the celebration for an admiration of the qualities that transformed a refugee race into some of the first citizens in the golden country in which they sought haven.
