List of Americans of Irish descent

This is a list of Americans of Irish descent, 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 and/or references showing the person is Irish American.

List

Actors

Arts

Astronauts

Business

Film directors and producers

Gangsters and mobsters

Journalists, news producers, talk show hosts

Law enforcement

Law

Literature

Military

Musicians

Politicians

Presidents

At least 23 presidents of the United States have some Irish ancestral origins,[50] 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 Andrew Jackson and 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 and Irish ancestry. James K. Polk also had Scots-Irish ancestry. Only Kennedy and Biden were raised as practicing Catholics.[51]

Andrew Jackson (English and Scots-Irish)[52]
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. Jackson then moved to Tennessee, where he served as Governor.
James Knox Polk (Scots-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.[53]
James Buchanan (Scots-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.[53]
Andrew Johnson (Irish & English)
17th President, 1865–69: His Mother was Mary "Polly" McDonough (1783–1856), a laundress of Irish ancestry[54]His grandfather supposedly left Mounthill, near Larne in County Antrim, around 1750 and settled in North Carolina he was of English ancestry. Johnson 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.[53]
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.[55]
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.[53][56]
Grover Cleveland (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 was of Irish ancestry surname Neal, who supposedly emigrated from County Antrim in the 1790s. He is the only president to have served non-consecutive terms.[53] His father was Richard Falley Cleveland he was of English ancestry[57]
Benjamin Harrison (Scotch-Irish & English)
23rd President, 1889–93: His mother, Elizabeth Irwin, had Ulster-Scots roots through her 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.[53]
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 Irish congresses held in the late 19th century. His second term as president was cut short by an assassin's bullet.[53][58]
Theodore Roosevelt (Scotch-Irish, Irish, Dutch, Scottish, 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."[59] However, he also 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." (*Roosevelt was referring to "nativists", not American Indians, in this context.)
William Howard Taft (Scotch-Irish & English)
27th President 1909–13[60]
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.[53]
Warren G. Harding (Scotch-Irish & English)
29th President 1921–23
Harry S. Truman (Irish Scotch-Irish, English & German)
33rd President 1945–53[61]
John F. Kennedy (Irish)
35th President 1961–63 (County Wexford)
Richard Nixon (Scotch-Irish, Irish)
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.[53]
Jimmy Carter (Scotch-Irish & English)
39th President 1977–1981 (County Antrim)[55]
Ronald Reagan (Irish)
40th President 1981–89: He was the great-grandson, on his father's side, of Irish migrants from Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, who came to America via Canada and England in the 1840s. His mother was of Scottish and English ancestry.
George H. W. Bush ( Irish & English)
41st President 1989–93: (County Wexford) His ancestry has been traced to Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (known as Strongbow), and to Dermot MacMurrough, the Gaelic king of Leinster.[62][63]
George W. Bush (Irish & 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.[63]
Barack Obama (Kenyan (Luo), English, and Irish)
44th President 2009–17: His father was part of the Luo ethnic group in Kenya. His mother's ancestry was predominantly English, but a few of his maternal ancestors hailed from Moneygall, County Offaly.[64]
Joe Biden (Irish)
His mother was of Irish descent, with roots traced variously to County Louth and County Londonderry. His father was of English, French, and Irish descent.

Science

Sports

Others

See also

References

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  2. Slate "The important thing to know about Michael Flatley is that he's Irish-American..."
  3. "Distant Irish relatives mourn moonwalker Neil Armstrong". IrishCentral.com. 27 August 2012. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
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  8. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com. Cite uses generic title (help)
  9. "his father, Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian"
  10. "whose mother came of Irish stock."
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  12. "My father was born in 1884 in Toronto, Canada, of a Scottish mother... and an Irish father... In 1964 I became an Irish citizen."
  13. "Leo McCarey was the first son of Irish-Catholic Thomas McCarey"
  14. "raised in a working-class Irish-American family."
  15. "Both of my parents are half Irish"
  16. "a young Irish columnist named Mike Barnicle..."
  17. "The Gospel According to Jimmy Breslin". southerncrossreview.org.
  18. Smolenyak, Megan. "Ann Coulter's Immigrant Ancestors". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
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  34. Lacayo, Richard. "All-TIME 100 Novels". Time via entertainment.time.com.
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  40. Hugh Chisholm (1911). Encyclopedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. University Press. p. 1.
  41. "One of the countless young Irish Americans queuing up in front of the recruitment offices..."
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  43. "USS O'Brien (DD 975)". www.navysite.de.
  44. General John O'Neill"General John O'Neill arrived in the United States from Ireland in 1848..."
  45. Wright, Lawrence (7 January 2002). "The Counter-Terrorist". The New Yorker via www.newyorker.com.
  46. "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..."
  47. "Philip's parents, came to United States in 1830... John and Mary were second degree cousins from County Cavan, Ireland."
  48. http://macsoldpapermoney.com/Currency/bios/shee.htm
  49. https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2019/03/17/an-irish-catholic-hero-of-the-revolution/
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  75. ABC News "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."
  76. Famous Irish Americans "A native of Ireland...
  77. "Hoban studied at the Dublin Society School in Dublin before emigrating..."
  78. James E. Seaver (2015). A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-8061-4891-5.
  79. Nsenga Burton. "AfricanAncestry.com Reveals Roots of MLK and Marcus Garvey". Archived from the original on 24 January 2016.
  80. https://web.archive.org/web/20091028033945/http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/morphy.htm. Paul Morphy Genealogy
  81. https://www.facebook.com/michaelpatrick.mulroy

Further reading

  • Barkan, Elliott Robert, ed. (2001). Making it in America: A Sourcebook on Eminent Ethnic Americans. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576070987.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Byrne, James Patrick, Philip Coleman, and Jason Francis King, eds. Ireland and the Americas: culture, politics, and history: a multidisciplinary encyclopedia (3 vol. ABC-CLIO, 2008)
  • Delaney, John J. Dictionary of American Catholic biography (Doubleday, 1984), 625pp; 1500 short biographies, about half Irish
  • Glazier, Michael, ed. The encyclopedia of the Irish in America (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999)
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