Exploring the Irish Diaspora in America and Beyond

Since colonial times the Irish have come to America, often to Boston, New York and Newport. The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1855) brought thousands more to New York and by 1855, with a total population of over 600,000, 232,488 were born in Ireland or had Irish parents (39%). In Newport by 1865 the Irish born and of Irish parentage totaled 40% of the population. Large numbers of Irish also left Ireland or were deported to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The first session of this class will study the history of this Irish immigration.

The second session will focus on Irish neighborhoods in New York and Newport using historic Census data. The decennial Censuses from 1850 to 1940 have been digitized and databases created with millions of records. The original Census records are available on Ancestry.com and can be searched by name. Historic maps of major American cities are also available online and can be linked to Census data to study Irish neighborhoods at the street or building level.

Kurt Schlichting, Ph.D., is the E. Gerald Corrigan ’63 chair in humanities and social sciences emeritus at Fairfield University. Kurt served as the dean and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His academic research leads the field of historic geographical information system, HGIS, which he used to study the Irish in Newport. He has lectured for the Newport Museum of Irish History and presented at academic conferences in the United States and abroad. Kurt was a visiting fellow at the Moore Research Institute, National University Ireland, Galway.