History - A brief history of the Irish immigrants coming to America around the 1920s.

To understand the American children of Irish immigrants one needs to understand the plight of their parents.  Ireland is comprised of thirty two counties.  The six northeastern counties were set up by the British in 1920 to be self-governing and called "Northern Ireland."  It had an overall Protestant majority and was beholden to British rule.  The remaining twenty six counties became known as the "Irish Free State."  Many Catholics who lived in the six northern counties were unable to find work and looked to America as the land of opportunity.  

Just as Ireland was getting on with its new order, the Irish immigrants were being restricted by the United States Congress.  In 1925, Irish quotas were imposed and the numbers of Irish allowed in the the country dropped dramatically.  In the first decade of the twentieth century, more than thirty thousand Irish immigrants came to the United States.  The average declined to twenty thousand a year thereafter.  With the lowered quota, the annual intake went to one thousand or less during the 1930s.