The Irish Diaspora in a Southern American City: History, Anthropology, Archives and Engagement in Savannah, Georgia

Panel was organized by David Gleeson, Howard Keeley, Barbara Hendry, and Luciana Spracher for the First International Congress on the Global Irish Diaspora

Four speakers: Irish Americans are typically associated with urban communities and parishes of the Northeast and Midwest, while the South has often been thought about in terms of the Black-White divide that characterized much of the region for so long. However, ethnic diversity among whites in the South did exist, especially in cities—New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, and others—where groups such as the Irish arrived in significant enough numbers to form distinctive communities, which have persisted through time. According to the 1860 Federal Census, over a fifth of the “free” (i.e. non-slave) residents of Savannah were Irish-born, and that city today hosts what is considered to be the second-largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the North American continent. In this session, by focusing on the Irish experience, past and present, in one Southern city, we hope to contribute to a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the Irish diaspora in the United States.