[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4300-4301]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     IRISH-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, today I applaud the President in 
declaring March 2011 Irish-American Heritage Month, and I speak in 
celebration of the rich Irish history, culture, and customs still alive 
today in the hearts and minds of Irish Americans everywhere.
  The association of our two nations began early in our country's 
history. Irish immigrants arrived in the early colonial days as 
indentured servants, which was often the only affordable method of 
passage to the ``New World.'' Close to a quarter of a million Irish 
immigrated during the colonial era, and many of them to Maryland. Upon 
their arrival, they set immediately upon the heady things of the time: 
independence, and the building of a nation. Irish immigrants took up 
their new national identity with fervor, especially in Maryland, and 
helped to found lasting institutions. Charles Carroll, his family 
descendants from the O Cearbhaill lords of Eile, was a member of the 
second Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. 
His cousin, John Carroll, born in Upper Marlboro, was elected the first 
bishop of Baltimore, and was elevated to the first Archbishop of the 
United States when Pope Pius VII made Baltimore the first American 
Catholic archdiocese. James Calhoun, of Irish descent, was the first 
mayor of Baltimore City, and held a commission with the Baltimore 
militia.
  From these auspicious beginnings, those reporting Irish ancestry in 
Maryland have today grown to over 700,000, according to the 2006 
American Community Survey. These sons and daughters of Eire did not 
grow without tribulation. As famine and hunger gripped the Emerald 
Isle, nearly 3.5 million Irish immigrants fled to America between 1820 
and 1880, engendering discriminatory reactions that often strayed into 
violence. Signs of ``No Irish Need Apply'' appeared in business 
windows, and young Irishmen were often drummed into service on the 
quayside to fight for the Union Army. Indeed, in my own home town of 
Baltimore, the mayoral elections of 1856, 1857 and 1858 were marred by 
violence, political intimidation and well-founded accusations of 
ballot-box stuffing, fomented by nativist political organizations, such 
as the Know-Nothing Party.
  Irish Americans pushed past these shortsighted prejudices, time and 
again, and put their shoulders to the wheel of industry in America. 
They helped settle and farm the breadbasket of America, they took up 
arms in the defense of freedom and liberty, and they helped build an 
ever strengthening bond with the island nation of Ireland. They built 
strong communities around the values of hard work, perseverance, faith, 
and a shared remembrance of an ancestral home across the sea. Irish 
Americans have ever understood that great joy is only earned with great 
hardship, and our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, showed this 
ethic. In service to our country, he faced down the threat of worldwide 
nuclear annihilation, and pushed our Nation to do the impossible: to 
claim the Moon as the province of man. Irish Americans proudly continue 
this tradition of service, and serve at every level of public office, 
including in the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis, MD, where Maryland's 
favorite Irish-American son, Governor Martin O'Malley, resides.
  The millions of Irish that immigrated to the United States, escaping 
hunger and religious persecution, chasing the elusive American dream, 
forever knitted Ireland and America together. It is right that we honor 
this bond, and take this occasion to reflect on the deeply inlaid 
threads of American history and tradition that sound, look, feel, and 
are distinctly Irish.

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