Emigration Patterns

Chain migration is the phenomenon when an immigrant already in American wrote home to bring out another. That immigrant in turn induced another to come out, and so on. Strong patterns of "chains" of emigration in some parts of Ireland resulted in Irish county settlements in the U.S. as follows:

Donegal

Philadelphia PA; Boston MA; Brooklyn NY; NYC west side below 14th Street; Perry County OH

Derry

Philadelphia PA; NYC Westside below 14th Street; Springfield MA (Irish speakers from Dingle peninsula); Perry County OH

Kerry

Hartford, Norwich, Connecticut Valley area, and Waterbury CT; Boston, Holyoke, Chicopee and Worcester MA; NYC's old fourth ward (near today's Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge), Harlem and the South Bronx; Detroit MI; Chicago IL; San Francisco CA

Cork

Butte and Anaconda MT; Boston, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River MA; Bridgeport and Connecticut Valley area CT; South Brooklyn and the north shore of Staten Island NY; Jersey City NJ; NYC's old 7th ward (where the Manhattan Bridge cuts into Manhattan; Detroit MI; San Francisco CA

Leitrim

Providence R.I.; New Haven, Bridgeport CT; NYC north of 14th Street; Morrow County OR

Mayo

Boston MA; Philadelphia, Scranton and Pittsburgh PA; Jersey City, Newark and Orange NJ; Cleveland OH; Mackinac Island MI; Chicago IL; NYC north of 14th Street

Sligo

Boston MA; Scranton PA

Galway

Boston MA; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh PA (in the "Point" neighborhood; Jersey City, Newark and Orange NJ; Cincinnati OH; Louisville KY; Chicago IL

Cavan

Providence RI; Newark NJ; NYC (near 14th Street in an area called "Mackrelville"); Perry County OH; Butte and Anaconda MT

Roscommon

Boston MA; Providence RI; Jersey City, Newark and Orange NJ

Longford

NYC (especially Brooklyn)

Westmeath

NYC's old 21st ward (between Fourth Avenue and the East River)

Waterford

Yonkers NY

Antrim

Philadelphia PA; Greenpoint section of Brooklyn NY; NYC below 14th Street; Perry County OH; Detroit MI

Tyrone

Providence RI; Philadelphia PA; NYC (near Grand Street)

Limerick

NYC's old "Gas House District" (on the East side north of 14th Street); Detroit MI; Chicago IL

Tipperary

NYC (north of the Gas House District all the way to 59th Street); Detroit MI

Clare

Boston MA; NYC (West Village south of 14th Street, close to the Hudson River)

Fermanagh

Providence RI

Monaghan

Providence RI

Down

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh PA; Chicago IL

Armagh

Philadelphia PA

Dublin

New York City NY; Chicago IL

Offaly

New York City NY

Meath

NYC north of 14th Street

Kilkenny

New York City NY

Louth

New York City NY

Wexford

Chicago IL

West Cork Miners

Michigan's Upper Peninsula; Virginia City NV; Cripple Creek and Aspen CO; Park City UT; Wood River ID; Butte and Anaconda M

Source: "County Colonies in the United States", Irish Echo Supplement September 1993

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