KLEM FM

Erin Gone Bragh

Before 1850 two well-defined streams of Irish immigrants were flowing into Wisconsin--one through the Southwest; the second through the Milwaukee harbor. The first Irish sought work in the lead mines. Many descendants are still to be found living in Benton, Shullsburg, Darlington, Seymour and Willow Springs in Lafayette County. The potato famine of 1846 and the harsh rack-rent servitude of the absentee English landlords induced the largest migrations. By 1850 there were 21,000 natives of Ireland in Wisconsin, three-fourths of whom had arrived during territorial days.  As a rule the early immigrants to Southeastern Wisconsin arriving at Lake Michigan ports settled in the lakeland counties. Three rural townships in Brown County were almost wholly populated by them. Milwaukee became a focal point for disembarkation. By 1847 there were over 2,500 sons of Erin in the Cream City, the larger group living on the east side of the Milwaukee River. Of these, the greatest concentration was in the aptly styled "bloody third" ward, a political subdivision, since conquered by modern Italy.  

With Milwaukee serving as a distribution center, the Irish spread northward into inland farming sections of Washington, Ozaukee and Sheboygan counties. Starting as a one hundred per cent Irish community, the adjoining towns of Erin in Washington County and Merton in Waukesha County were slowly encroached upon by German neighbors until now the settlement has lost its outstanding Celtic identity. At its heart remains the hamlet of Monches, near Holy Hill, which alone survives as a distinctive Irish stronghold. A like capitulation has taken place in the townships of Emmett and Shields, northwest of Watertown in Dodge County. 

The third influx, the settlements in Northwest Wisconsin, came after 1855. Until the turn of the century, the farming communities at Long Lake in Polk County, Erin Prairie in St. Croix County, and El Paso in Pierce County were as Irish in thought and conduct as Cork and Dublin in the Old World. 

~ Fred L. Holmes, writing in "Old World Wisconsin: Around Europe In The Badger State" E. M. Hale & Co. Eau Claire, WI, (1944) 

Professor Holmes was writing in 1944. I wonder what traces remain today?  The census map from 2000 below doesn't really show cultural remnants:

original

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Paddy's one and all, unless you're an Orangeman.

I'm half Irish - me mother was a McGrath - and my first memories of celebrating St. Paddy's was my granddad taking me to his favorite bar when I was  a wee lad of three years.  We kept the tradition until he died at age 93.  And we practiced for St. Paddy's Day every time we saw each other.  A man needs to keep ready, you know.

The part of me that's Irish hates it when drunken fookers invade my favorite pub and act like idjits, drinking green Miller beer and puking on everything.

And now some music from fine Irish lads.


God love ya, dear friends.  'Tis a day to be filled with joy.