Remember Irish on Independence Day

As July Fourth approaches, Americans should know that Irish participation in the American Revolution and helped make American independence a reality.

One must wonder why tens of thousands of old Gaelic names of 17th and 18th Century Irish immigrants appear with astonishing regularity in completely verifiable colonial records, yet any reference to these people is almost totally omitted from our standard American histories, including the American Revolution.

A few following documented facts will reveal some accurate history of Irish participation in the American Revolution.

Battle of Lexington (4/19/1775), 174 Irish were present.

Battle of Bunker Hill (6/17/1775), 698 Irish were present.

A prominent American, Joseph Galloway, also an English Tory, on 10/27/1779 told the English House of Commons that one-half of Washington's Continental Army was Irish.

On 4/2/1784, Luke Gardiner, afterward Lord Mountjoy, told the English Parliament, "America was lost by Irish emigrants... I am assured from the best authority, the major part of the American Army was composed of Irish and that the Irish language was as commonly spoken in the American ranks as English. I am also informed it was their valor that determined the contest... "

Many Irish, banished by England, came with Lafayette; 637 were killed at the Siege of Savannah.

Robert E. West

Irish American Unity

Conference Author, Historian

Wauconda