The Irish Connection: Irish Culture in Georgia

I recently returned from leading a tour in Ireland and was struck by a few things. First, the scenery was magnificent, such as the stunning Slea Head Drive around the Dingle Peninsula where neon-green mountains cascade to craggy cliffs overlooking the sea. Also, the cuisine was unexpectedly delicious, as the freshest seafood, local beef, and yes, potatoes – but creatively concocted – headlined menus. The people were overwhelmingly friendly, too, going out of their way to get to know you and help however they could. Yet something else that struck me was how much Ireland felt like home, as I recognized so many names, faces, and aspects of Irish culture from American society.

We are all aware that Irish and American cultures are very close, but how much do we know about the Georgia/Ireland connection? Did you know, for instance, that more Georgians claim ancestry from Ireland than any nation other than England? What about the fact that Savannah hosts one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the world after Dublin and New York? Find out why Georgia and Ireland have this long-standing bond below.

The Irish began arriving in Savannah in 1734, less than a year after James Oglethorpe founded Georgia, on some of the first ships to transport settlers to the new colony. In fact, at least nine of the first Georgia colonists to be granted land were Irish. Like many arrivals in the New World, these early Irish settlers were largely farmers who sought religious freedom and access to land ownership.

The first dedicated Irish settlement in Georgia was the Queensborough community, founded in the 1760s in what is now Jefferson County. Here, settlers willing to cross the Atlantic were offered thousands of acres of land around the Ogeechee River which had belonged to the Creek Indians, and many Irish took advantage. After the Revolution, Queensborough would become Louisville, Georgia’s first permanent state capital.

The influx of Irish to Georgia really began in the 1830s when the state was growing so quickly that Irishmen willing to work for cheap became the primary source of labor in building the state’s infrastructure. For instance, Irish “diggers” or “ditchers” – semi-skilled poor laborers – dug canals in Augusta and built the railroads that would connect settlements further and further west. These laborers left their mark with new settlements such as Dublin in Central Georgia.

With the onset of the Irish potato famine in 1845 and the loss of one-third of their staple food product, the Irish moved to the U.S. in waves, willing to do any job necessary to avoid starvation. Their increased migration to Georgia continued for decades so that by 1860, as many as one in three white households in Savannah contained Irish-born immigrants. In fact, emigration between County Wexford in Ireland and Savannah was so great that today, more people in Savannah with Irish ancestry have Wexford roots than any other Irish county.

As the Civil War and Industrial Revolution brought masses of people into larger Northern cities seeking factory work, jobs began to fill so that eventually cities such as Boston and New York turned the Irish away to keep work open for “native-born Americans.” Savannah remained one of the few port cities still open to the Irish, as it needed an able workforce for its shipping, agricultural, and railroad industries.

Although today just one person in 11 in Chatham County claims Irish ancestry, that has not put a damper on Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day Festival. While Savannah’s first public celebration of St. Patrick was held in 1824, today this festival has grown to a several-day event featuring 280 groups – bands, families, societies, soldiers, etc. – participating in the parade with 400,000 spectators drawn from the world over.

When it comes to the Irish, we in Georgia have more to celebrate than just St. Patrick. Whether you yourself possess Irish ancestry or not (and about 12 percent of Camden Countians do), we can all appreciate the deep and lasting impact the Irish have had on our society since those first ships arrived in the Georgia colony 300 years ago.

Molly Silver is owner and tour guide at Molly’s Old South Tours, offering daily tours of St. Marys and Cumberland Island. For information and tour reservations, go to mollysoldsouth.com or call 904-735-8243.

Molly leads tours in Ireland and Italy for David McGuffin’s Exploring Europe.