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Irish In The
Revolution
We as Irish Americans should take particular
pride in the role
that the Irish played in the Revolution that made this country possible.
The Irish connection to the American Revolution can be seen in the
history of the Declaration of Independence that we celebrate on
the 4th of July. Nine of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration were
Irish Americans.
Three were born in Ireland: Matthew Thornton
(NH), James Smith (PA) and George Taylor (PA). George Reed was the
son of a Dublin born father, his fellow Delaware delegate Thomas
McKean was the son of Irish parents. The only non-protestant and
only Catholic to sign the Declaration was Charles Carroll (MD), a
descendant of immigrants from Kings County (Offaly). Edward
Rutledge (SC) was the son of an Irish born father; Thomas Lynch
(SC) was the namesake of his grandfather who fled his native
Galway after the failed rebellion of 1691. Robert Treat Paine
(Mass) was descendant of Robert O’Neill who, under threat of
execution by the Crown, changed the family name before emigrating.
However, the Irish connection to the Declaration did not stop with
the signing. The final revised draft of Jefferson’s words was
prepared by the Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles
Thomson of Derry (for National Treasure fans, Timothy Matlack,
Thomson’s clerk, prepared the engrossed version of the document
some two weeks later that is in the National Archives). The
Declaration was then sent for printing, at the risk of being hung
for treason, to John Dunlap, formerly of Strabane, Tyrone, on the
evening of July 4th for distribution to the legislatures of the 13
colonies. On July 8, accompanied by the pealing of the Liberty
Bell, the Declaration of Independence was read in public for the
first time by Col. John Nixon, of the Philadelphia Committee of
Safety at the State House in Philadelphia. Nixon’s father was an
immigrant from Wexford and an employer and friend of fellow
Wexford man and naval hero of the Revolution John Barry.
The Irish contribution to America’s independence was not limited
to the political and philosophical, but also took an active role.
The first attack by the Americans on land against the British was
the capture of arms and ammunition at Portsmouth, New Hampshire
four months before the battle of Lexington by John Sullivan (who
would later rise to the rank of Major General), a son of a
Limerick native. In February 1776, the Americans scored one of its
rare early victories at Moore’s Creek where 1500 Tories
surrendered to Colonel (later General) James Moore, a descendant
of Roger O’Moore a leader of the 1641 Irish Rebellion. Among the
heroes of the key battle of Saratoga was Timothy Murphy, a
descendant of Donegal.
In total, some twenty of Washington’s generals were of Irish
descent. It is estimated that some twenty five percent of
Washington’s Army was Irish. The British historian Froude noted ,
“Washington’s Irish supporters were the foremost, the most
irreconcilable, and the most determined to push the quarrel to the
last extremity.” Major General Marquis de Chastellux, who fought
with the Americans at Yorktown observed, “On more than one
occasion Congress owed their existence and America possibly her
preservation to the fidelity and firmness of the Irish.” After the
war, Lord Mountjoy stated in the British Parliament, “America was
lost through the action of her Irish immigrants.”
It is unfortunate, when today so much effort is made to recognize
the contributions of many different heritages to the fight for
America’s freedom, that the overwhelming contribution of the Irish
is still overlooked. Let us remember, and work to fulfill, the
sentiments of George Washington Parke Custis, George Washington’s
adopted son, who knew well the service the Irish rendered to his
adoptive father:
“Then honored be the old and good
services of the sons of Erin in
the War of Independence. Let the Shamrock be entwined with the
laurels of the Revolution: and truth and justice guiding the pen
of history inscribe on the tablets of America’s remembrance,
Eternal gratitude to Irishmen.”
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