List of Irish Americans

This is a list of notable Irish Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American-born descendants.

To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Irish American or must have references showing they are Irish American and are notable.


List

Actors

Arts

Business

Educators

Film directors and producers

Gangsters and mobsters

Law enforcement

Law

Literature

Media and journalists

Military

Musicians

Politicians

Presidents

At least 22 presidents of the United States have some Irish ancestral origins,[72] although the extent of this varies. For instance President Clinton claims Irish ancestry despite there being no documentation of any of his ancestors coming from Ireland, but Kennedy on the other hand have strong documented Irish origins. Also Ronald Reagan's great grandfather was an Irish Roman Catholic, and his mother had some Scots-Irish ancestry. James K. Polk also had Scots-Irish Ancestry. Only Kennedy was raised as a practicing Catholic.

Andrew Jackson (Scotch-Irish)
7th President 1829–37: : He was born in the predominantly Ulster-Scots Waxhaws area of South Carolina two years after his parents left Boneybefore, near Carrickfergus in County Antrim. A heritage centre in the village pays tribute to the legacy of 'Old Hickory', the People's President. Andrew Jackson then moved to Tennessee, where he served as Governor[73]
James Knox Polk (Scotch-Irish)
11th President, 1845–49: His ancestors were among the first Ulster-Scots settlers, emigrating from Coleraine in 1680 to become a powerful political family in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He moved to Tennessee and became its governor before winning the presidency.[74]
James Buchanan (Scotch-Irish)
15th President, 1857–61: Born in a log cabin (which has been relocated to his old school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania), 'Old Buck' cherished his origins: "My Ulster blood is a priceless heritage". The Buchanans were originally from Deroran, near Omagh in County Tyrone where the ancestral home still stands.[74] Buchanan also had pre-plantation Irish ancestry being a descendant of the O'Kanes from County Londonderry.
Andrew Johnson (Scotch-Irish & English)
17th President, 1865–69: His grandfather left Mounthill, near Larne in County Antrim around 1750 and settled in North Carolina. Andrew worked there as a tailor and ran a successful business in Greeneville, Tennessee, before being elected Vice-President. He became President following Abraham Lincoln's assassination.[74]
Ulysses S. Grant (Scotch-Irish, English & Scottish)
18th President, 1869–77: The home of his maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson, at Dergenagh, County Tyrone, is the location for an exhibition on the eventful life of the victorious Civil War commander who served two terms as President. Grant visited his ancestral homeland in 1878.[75]
Chester A. Arthur (Scotch-Irish & English)
21st President, 1881–85: His election was the start of a quarter-century in which the White House was occupied by men of Ulster-Scots origins. His family left Dreen, near Cullybackey, County Antrim, in 1815. There is now an interpretive centre, alongside the Arthur Ancestral Home, devoted to his life and times.[74][76][77]
Grover Cleveland (Scotch-Irish & Irish-English)
22nd and 24th President, 1885–89 and 1893–97: Born in New Jersey, he was the maternal grandson of merchant Abner Neal, who emigrated from County Antrim in the 1790s. He is the only president to have served non-consecutive terms.[74]
Benjamin Harrison (Scotch-Irish & English)
23rd President, 1889–93: His mother, Elizabeth Irwin, had Ulster-Scots roots through her two great-grandfathers, James Irwin and William McDowell. Harrison was born in Ohio and served as a brigadier general in the Union Army before embarking on a career in Indiana politics which led to the White House.[74][78]
William McKinley (Scotch-Irish & English)
25th President, 1897–1901: Born in Ohio, the descendant of a farmer from Conagher, near Ballymoney, County Antrim, he was proud of his ancestry and addressed one of the national Scotch-Irish congresses held in the late 19th century. His second term as president was cut short by an assassin's bullet.[74][79]
Theodore Roosevelt (Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Scotch, English & French)
26th President, 1901-09: His mother, Mittie Bulloch, had Ulster Scots ancestors who emigrated from Glenoe, County Antrim, in May 1729. Roosevelt praised "Irish Presbyterians" as "a bold and hardy race."[80] However, he is also the man who said: "But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts "native"* before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen." [81] (*Roosevelt was referring to "nativists", not American Indians, in this context)[82]
William Howard Taft (Scotch-Irish & English)
27th President 1909–13: His great great great grandfather, Robert Taft was born in 1640 in Ireland and immigrated to America, during the mid 17th century. He died in Mendon, Worcester, Massachusetts.[83][84]
Woodrow Wilson (Scotch-Irish)
28th President, 1913–21: Of Ulster-Scot descent on both sides of the family, his roots were very strong and dear to him. He was grandson of a printer from Dergalt, near Strabane, County Tyrone, whose former home is open to visitors. Throughout his career he reflected on the influence of his ancestral values on his constant quest for knowledge and fulfillment.[74]
Warren G. Harding (Scotch-Irish & English)
29th President 1921–23[85]
Harry S. Truman (Scotch-Irish & German)
33rd President 1945–53[86][87]
John F. Kennedy (Irish)
35th President 1961–63 (ancestors from County Wexford)
Richard Nixon (Scotch-Irish, English & German)
37th President, 1969–74: The Nixon ancestors left Ulster in the mid-18th century; the Quaker Milhous family ties were with County Antrim and County Kildare and County Cork.[74]
Jimmy Carter (Scotch-Irish & English)
39th President 1977–1981 (County Antrim)[75]
Ronald Reagan (Scotch-Irish, Irish, English & Scottish)
40th President 1981–89: He was the great-grandson, on his father's side, of Irish migrants from County Tipperary who came to America via Canada and England in the 1940s. His mother was of Scottish and English ancestry.[88]
George H. W. Bush (Scotch-Irish, & English)
41st President 1989–93: County Wexford historians have found that his now apparent ancestor, Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (known as Strongbow for his arrow skills) – is remembered as a desperate, land-grabbing warlord whose calamitous foreign adventure led to the suffering of generations. Shunned by Henry II, he offered his services as a mercenary in the 12th-century invasion of Wexford in exchange for power and land. When he eventually died of a festering ulcer in his foot, his enemies said it was the revenge of Irish saints whose shrines he had violated. The genetic line can also be traced to Dermot MacMurrough, the Gaelic king of Leinster reviled in history books as the man who sold Ireland by inviting Strongbow's invasion to save himself from a local feud.[89][90]
Bill Clinton (Scotch-Irish & English)
42nd President 1993–2001: He claims Irish ancestry despite there being no documentation of any of his ancestors coming from Ireland [74][91]
George W. Bush (Irish, Scottish, Dutch, Welsh, French, German & English)
43rd President 2001–09: One of his five times great-grandfathers, William Holliday, was born in Rathfriland, County Down, about 1755, and died in Kentucky about 1811–12. One of the President's seven times great-grandfathers, William Shannon, was born somewhere in County Cork about 1730, and died in Pennsylvania in 1784.[90]
Barack Obama (Kenyan American, African American, English American and also very distant Irish ancestry)
44th President 2009–: His paternal ancestors came to America from Kenya and his maternal ancestors came to America from England. His ancestors lived in New England and the South and by the 1800s most were in the Midwest. His father was Kenyan and the first of his family to leave Africa.[92][93]

Science

Sports

Others

References

  1. "The important thing to know about Michael Flatley is that he's Irish-American... His success comes from his ability to join unlikely elements together—Irish and Americans, step dancing and flamenco, pretension and frivolity."
  2. "William Harnett American, born Ireland, 1848(?)-1892"
  3. Neagle, John (2002-01-01). "John Neagle Papers". Retrieved 2016-02-21.
  4. "Of Irish and Hungarian ancestry, Georgia O'Keeffe was born on a farm in Sun Prairie, Wis...."
  5. "Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1848 to an Irish mother and a French father."
  6. "Diamond Jim Brady: Prince of the Gilded Age: H. Paul Jeffers: 9780471391029: Amazon.com: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-09-23. "Born in 1856 into an Irish immigrant family who ran a saloon on the Lower East Side..."
  7. "Dawn Fitzpatrick/UBS O'Connor". Irish America.
  8. "Ford was born on 30 July 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan, the son of Irish immigrants (of English ancestry) who fled the potato famine in the 1840s."
  9. "Franklin Gowen, the fifth son of an Irish immigrant, was born in Philadelphia in 1836..."
  10. "www.irishboard.com"
  11. "www.conncreek.com"
  12. "On his father's side there was the Irish connection, his grandfather coming from Tipperary and his paternal grandmother from Cork..."
  13. "grew up in the suburb Orland Park, to a Croatian-Irish family..."
  14. "The Irish-Catholic kid who learned to play golf as a 12-year-old caddy beat a champion..."
  15. Planas, Roque (December 16, 2012). "Victoria Soto, Newtown Teacher, Emerges As Hero After Shooting". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
  16. "his father, Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian, and his mother, Flora Call Disney, who was of German-English descent."
  17. "He was the youngest child of an East End family whose father ran a poulterer's and greengrocer's business and whose mother came of Irish stock. The family was Catholic."
  18. "In 1955, he became an American citizen."
  19. "Irish based firm director John Huston"
  20. "My father was born in 1884 in Toronto, Canada, of a Scottish mother... and an Irish father... In 1964 I became an Irish citizen."
  21. "Leo McCarey was the first son of Irish-Catholic Thomas McCarey, a well-known boxing promoter, and French-born Leona [Mistrol] McCarey, for whom he is named."
  22. "Both of my parents are half Irish"
  23. "Moore, now 55, was raised in a working-class Irish-American family."
  24. Oyez: William J. Brennan, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice "The second of eight children born to Irish immigrants..."
  25. "He was born in Yonkers 42 years ago, the second of four children in a middle-class Irish-American family."
  26. "His parents were Irish-born and he grew up in a working-class Irish American community..."
  27. "Ethnicity Irish"
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  31. "In this racial maelstrom, there was one Globe man who was trusted on the gritty streets of South Boston, a young Irish columnist named Mike Barnicle..."
  32. "the daughter of Irish immigrants."
  33. "His book has been criticized for its intemperate remarks about the Irish and their American great-grandchildren, but if Jimmy Breslin is not qualified to make those judgments... who is?"
  34. "Look, I'm half-Italian and half-Irish..."
  35. "When he and Buchanan squared off on camera to debate the recent Pledge of Allegiance court ruling, they were just another pair of wealthy, middle-aged, white Irish Catholic men pontificating."
  36. "Dowd is assumed by most people to be a Democrat... in reality she was part of this kind of Irish-Catholic mafia that included Chris Matthews and Mike Kelly..."
  37. Ebert, Roger. "Roger Ebert's Last Words, con't. | Roger Ebert's Journal | Roger Ebert". Blogs.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
  38. "Born in Brooklyn in 1935, of Irish immigrant parents, Pete Hamill served in the US Navy, attended Mexico City College..."
  39. "Hannity, a proclaimed devout Irish Catholic, has blamed liberals for actions taken..."
  40. "The Irish Heritage and Culture Committee of Bronx Community College is celebrating its Annual Luncheon and Awards Ceremony". Saintpatricksdayparade.com. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
  41. "But Chris Matthews, the Irish-American host of MSNBC's political talk show "Hardball"..."
  42. Noonan "I pick Dublin because I was there most recently, and also because I'm Irish-American..."
  43. "O'Brien, the proud Irishman, clad very casually in denims and navy blue shirt..."
  44. "O'Brien was named to Irish American Magazine's "Top 100 Irish Americans" on two occasions."
  45. "Soledad O'Brien brings her unique heritage of Latino, Irish, and African-American cultures..."
  46. "O’Donnell has also been named to Irish American Magazine's 2000 "Top 100 Irish Americans" list."
  47. "He was raised Irish-Catholic in Long Island, NY..."
  48. "He was the son of an English woman of aristocratic origins and an Irish-born..."
  49. "Part of an Irish-American Catholic family, he was the eldest son of Frank and Florence..."
  50. Hammond, Ruth (August 1998). "Portrait of the Artist As a News Man". Pittsburgh City Paper. Pittsburgh.
  51. Russert "Irish America magazine has named him one of the top 100 Irish Americans in the country and he was selected as a Fellow of the Commission of European Communities."
  52. "I thought that certainly people I grew up with in the Irish Catholic neighborhood in Buffalo would want to read it."
  53. "As you may recall, Ed Sullivan, whose heritage was Irish ..."
  54. "Born in New Jersey of a Puerto Rican father and Irish American mother, and a self-described army brat..."
  55. "I don't know if it comes from being Irish or Catholic or both...."
  56. "John Barry was born in a modest thatched cottage in 1745 at Ballysampson on Our Lady's Island, which is part of Tacumshane Parish in County Wexford, Ireland..."
  57. "A policeman in Ireland, Michael Corcoran became a symbol of what an Irishman – and a Fenian – could make of himself in the New World..."
  58. "Hickey is the son of working-class Irish immigrants..."
  59. "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Irish (In Countries Other Than Ireland)". Newadvent.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  60. "THOMAS Francis Meagher, Irish nationalist. captain in the 69th New York State Militia at 1st Manassas, and Civil War general..."
  61. "MONTGOMERY, RICHARD (1736–1775), American soldier, was born in Co. Dublin, Ireland, in 1736..."
  62. "One of the countless young Irish Americans queuing up in front of the recruitment offices was Audie Murphy from Greenville, Texas..."
  63. The Saratoga Rifleman "His parents, Irish immigrants, were Thomas and Mary (Lundy) Murphy..."
  64. USS O'Brien (DD 975) "The shamrock centered at the top of the pile alludes to Jeremiah O'Brien's Irish ancestry..."
  65. Tuohy, William (2009). The Bravest Man. Random House. p. 125. ISBN 0307554872.
  66. General John O'Neill "General John O'Neill arrived in the United States from Ireland in 1848..."
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  68. "She survived her husband many years, known of course as Molly McCauly, and the statements so frequently made that Molly Pitcher was a young Irish woman..."
  69. "John and Mary Minah Sheridan, Philip's parents, came to America in 1830 at the urging of John's uncle, Thomas Gainor, living in Albany, New York. John and Mary were second degree cousins from County Cavan, Ireland."
  70. "General John Sullivan: His Irish Family Background"
  71. Archived 9 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
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  75. Northern Ireland Tourist Board.
  76. discovernorthernireland – explore more: Arthur Cottage Accessed 3 March 2010. "Arthur Cottage, situated in the heart of County Antrim, only a short walk from the village of Cullybackey is the ancestral home of Chester Alan Arthur, the 21st President of the USA."
  77. "The Presidents, Benjamin Harrison". American Heritage.com. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
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  79. Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning Of The West, Volume 1, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, pg. 77
  80. http://home.comcast.net/~nhprman/trhyphenated.htm
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  82. Marck, John T. "William H. Taft". aboutfamouspeople.com. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  83. "The Presidents, William Taft". American Heritage.com. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  84. "Warren Gamaliel Harding". thinkquest.com. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
  85. Marck, John T. "Harry S. Truman". aboutfamouspeople.com. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
  86. "The Presidents, Harry S Truman". American Heritage.com. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  87. "The Presidents, Ronald Reagan". American Heritage.com. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  88. Chrisafis, Angelique (27 January 2005). "Scion of traitors and warlords: why Bush is coy about his Irish links". London: Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  89. 1 2 "American Presidents with Irish Ancestors". Directory of Irish Genealogy. Retrieved 15 April 2008.
  90. "The Presidents". American Heritage.com. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  91. "The Presidents, Barack Obama". American Heritage.com. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
  92. "Ancestry of Barack Obama". William Addams Reitwiesner. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  93. "Home - Department of Taoiseach". Taoiseach.gov.ie. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
  94. Fellows List – October 2003 – MacArthur Foundation Archived 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  95. "John Philip Holland". Rnsubmus.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-11-15. "John Philip Holland was born in Ireland in 1841. He emigrated to America where his first successful submarine design was paid for by Irish nationalists seeking Ireland's liberation from Britain."
  96. 1 2 https://web.archive.org/web/20060322162528/http://www.bkfk.com/inventions/irishinventors.asp. Archived from the original on 22 March 2006. Retrieved 7 June 2006. Missing or empty |title= (help) "Charles McBurney (1845–1913) was an Irish American medical pioneer famous in his field for his early reports about appendicitis."
  97. "Modest Roach plays down role in Pacquaio transformation". Reuters. 1 May 2015.
  98. "FrontierTimes – Outlaws – Billy The Kid". Frontiertimes.com. Retrieved 2013-11-15. "aka Billy Bonney, from his birth in New York's Irish slums..."
  99. "Molly Brown Museum control page". Mollybrownmuseum.com. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  100. http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/docs/burns121505e.htm
  101. Brian Pendreigh (7 September 2001). "Obituary:John Chambers: Make-up master responsible for Hollywood's finest space-age creatures". London: The Guardian. Retrieved Feb 27, 2013.
  102. "The Irish American contribution to space exploration has continued in recent years with astronauts Kathryn Sullivan and Eileen Collins..." Archived 27 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  103. "John Dunlap". Virtualology.com. 2001-04-02. Retrieved 2013-11-15. "John Dunlap, born in Ireland in 1747..."
  104. "I am descended from a white man... who slept with a black slave. And we know from the analysis of the DNA that... goes back to Ireland" [http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8195564-->]
  105. "Famous Irish Americans". Aoh61.com. 2004-10-05. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  106. "WPT | Players | Players". Worldpokertour.com. Retrieved 2013-11-15. "Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts of Irish descent..."
  107. "James Hoban (1762–1831) – Biographies – Irish Architecture". Two.archiseek.com. 2009-06-06. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  108. Jemison family "Mary Jemison was born onboard the ship Planter on the way from Ireland to America." Archived 30 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  109. "Paul Morphy Genealogy". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
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