IRISH NATIONALISM IN CLEVELAND
IRISH NATIONALISM IN CLEVELAND. Support for the cause of Irish nationhood has flourished in Cleveland, Ohio, for as long as IRISH immigrants have settled in the area. Cleveland first began to attract Irish laborers in numbers when work commenced here on the OHIO AND ERIE CANAL in 1825. Several early immigrants were noted in obituaries and family lore as supporters of the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798 or followers of patriot Robert Emmet, who was executed by the British in 1803.
A Friends of Ireland group was formed in Cleveland in 1841, and the city’s first public celebration of St. Patrick’s Day took place in 1842. Two supporters of the 1848 Young Ireland rebellion made their way to Cleveland in the 1850s. One, Professor J.R. Fitzgerald spoke regularly on Irish Nationalist themes at an annual banquet hosted by the HIBERNIAN GUARDS, a local militia. The other, bootmaker Patrick Kiernan Walsh, would spearhead nationalist activities in Cleveland for decades.