Who isn’t Irish this time of year? The Irish history in America is deep. Many of the people you meet every day trace their roots back to Ireland on one or both sides. So let’s see what you know about Ireland and the Irish history in the New World.

1) What American city is so proud of its Irish citizens that it turns its main river green with dye every March 17th?

2) Even though the Irish were a hard working group, there was huge discrimination against them as a group. What sign would an Irish person often see in the windows of businesses when looking for work?

3) By percentage of population, this Montana city is one of the most Irish in the country. Which city?

4) While Irish were among immigrants from the beginning of America, what caused a huge wave of migration in the middle of the 19th century?

5) When many of us think of Irish immigrants, we think of the Irish Ctaholic immigrants. Earlier Irish immigrants included Protestant Scotch-Irish from Ulster. What specific part of the US did these immigrants settle in?

6) Well son-of-a-gun, Iowa has an Irish Cultural Fest every year in August. Any idea what city hosts it?

7) Well, despite being despised when they first came to the US, eventually it seemed like the Irish were taking over major city politics across the country. One of the best known of these is the family that held the mayor’s office for what seems like half a century in Chicago. Can you name the family and the two mayors it produced?

8) His grandfather was the first Irish Catholic mayor of a large city. This man was the first Catholic president of the United States. Who were the mayor and his famous grandson?

9) President Obama is Irish on his mother’s (Stanley Dunham) side. What small town in Ireland did president Obama visit when he returned to his ancestral home a couple years ago?

10) Was Saint Patrick himself born in Ireland?

Ah! I hope all enjoyed the wearing of (and maybe the drinking of) the green yesterday. I have always thought of Patrick as the patron saint of basketball, since his feast day lands right in the middle of the High Holy Days of Basketball.
Now for some answers:

1) Chicago! where they dye the Chicago River green every year.

2) “No Irish Need Apply”

3) Butte, Montana. I don’t believe they are still overwhelmingly Irish, but they once were.

4) The potato famine in Ireland.

5) A large percentage settled in the Piedmont and Appalachian mountain regions.

6) Waterloo

7) The Daleys of Chicago, Richard J. Daley (mayor 1955 – 1976) , the father of Richard M. Daley (mayor 1989 – 2011)

8) John Francis (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald and his grandson John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

9) Moneygall

10) No. Patrick was born in Wales and taken to Ireland as a slave.