Monday, March 2, 2009

Irish American Heritage Month


(In the photo -- standing at right-- is a well-known Irish Catholic American named John F. Kennedy with the rest of his crew of the USS motor patrol boat, the PT 109, which saw combat in 1943 near Guadalcanal.)
By an act of the US Congress, March is Irish-American Heritage month. We will be covering on this blog many important and interesting stories about the Irish in America all month long. So stay tuned...
Adrian

Here is what it says about this at the official US Census website http://www.census.gov/:

Irish-American Heritage Month (March)and St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) 2006

Although not an official “federal” holiday in the United States, St. Patrick’s Day has a long history of being celebrated with parades and general goodwill for all things Irish. The day commemorates St. Patrick, believed to have died on March 17, who introduced Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. Because many Americans celebrate their Irish lineage on St. Patrick’s Day, March was picked as Irish-American Heritage Month. The month was first proclaimed in 1995 by Congress. Each year, the U.S. president also issues an Irish-American Heritage Month proclamation.
Population Distribution 34.5 million Number of U.S. residents who claim Irish ancestry. This number is almost nine times the population of Ireland itself (4.1 million). Irish is the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only those of German ancestry. (The ancestry estimates exclude people living in group quarters.)
(Source: American FactFinder and <http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/population/current/popmig.pdf>)

No comments: