Happy St. Patty's Day
Oh, St. Patty's day is here. In my hometown of Cleveland, Patty's day seemed to be bigger than Christmas. Families come together for Irish breakfast in the morning, and party through the day. Dance, drink, food, and music help set the mood. Bagpipes fill the air, Irish dancers stomp the floor, and the luck of the Irish becomes clear. If for nothing else, the Irish are lucky for their strength. As a people, they have endured hardships galore, but still have more love to share with their family and friends. I love being Irish. Even more, I love that everyone gets to be Irish one day out of the year!
Some Fun Facts
The Celebration
Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patrick's Day dish. In 2007, roughly 41.5 billion pounds of U.S. beef and 2.6 billion pounds of U.S. cabbage were sold. Many St. Patrick's Day celebrants enjoyed corned beef from Texas, which produced 6.8 billion pounds of beef, and cabbage from California and New York, which produced 581 and 580 million pounds, respectively.
Irish soda bread gets its name and distinctive character from the use of baking soda rather than yeast as a leavening agent.
Lime green chrysanthemums are often requested for St. Patrick's Day parades and celebrations.
Population Distribution of Irish Americans
There are 36.5 million U.S. residents with Irish roots. This number is almost nine times the population of Ireland itself (more than four million).
Irish is the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, ranking behind German.
Across the country, 12 percent of residents lay claim to Irish ancestry. That number doubles to 24 percent in the state of Massachusetts.
Irish is the most common ancestry in 54 U.S. counties, of which 44 are in the Northeast. Middlesex County in Massachusetts tops the list with 348,978 Irish Americans, followed by Norfolk County, MA, which has 203,285.
Irish ranks among the top five ancestries in every state except Hawaii and New Mexico. It is the leading ancestry group in Delaware, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
A total of 4.8 million immigrants from Ireland have been admitted to the United States for lawful permanent residence since 1820, the earliest year for which official records exist. Only Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Mexico have accounted for more U.S. immigrants.
Facts from www.history.com
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