DeDanaan

1783 The Renunciation Act pushed by Flood is passed by the British Parliament and acknowledged the independence of the Irish nation (to be ruled by the Protestant Irish Parliament).

The Irish Volunteers met in Convention again in Dublin, this time, they demanded parliamentary representation reform. This is denied. A confrontation seemed sure until moderate leaders disperse the Convention. The Volunteers never regain their political or numerical clout after that.

General Henry Knox, son of an Irish immigrant, succeeds Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

1784 James Duane, son of an Irish immigrant, is elected the first Mayor of New York City since the Revolution. His father, Anthony, emigrated from Ireland in 1717.

Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick organized as a fraternal organization for charitable works in New York City. Daniel McCormick was elected its first President.

George Clinton was Governor of New York, his son DeWitt will also be governor.

Dubliner Matthew Carey, who published a leading newspaper in Dublin arrived in Pennsylvania and founded a publishing empire that later included several newspapers. His son, Henry Charles Carey, who was born in 1793, later became a renowned economist.

Christopher Colles of Dublin expounds an idea to build canals with “locks” to join the Great Lakes as a transportation system to connect Oswego to Albany. He also proposes a national road network and a communication system (semaphore stations) to connect the new nation.

Benjamin Franklin wrote; “It is a fact that the Irish emigrants and their children are now in the possession of the government of Pennsylvania.”

The Reverend Francis Allison founded the College of Pennsylvania.

Patrick Henry is Governor of Virginia until 1786.

1785 Dominick Lynch arrived from his native Galway. He rose to become one of New York’s leading merchants

1786 John Sullivan was Governor of New Hampshire. He served until 1790.

1787 Scotsman Dan McKetch owned a fortified plantation in East Florida.

Of the 36 delegates to the United States Constitution Convention, 17% are Irish.

1789 Commodore John Barry forcibly brought to the Pennsylvania Assembly a small minority opposition group so a quorum could be met to ratify the U. S. Constitution. Many other states where holding back to see what Pennsylvania was going to do, ergo the moniker, the “Keystone State.”

George Washington elected the first President of the United States, Charles Thomson as Secretary of the Continental Congress brings him the news. Washington was, as shown earlier second cousins to a family of McCarthy’s. His diary shows he was very close to the family.
Washington’s family was from the south-western part of England that had a Celtic tie.

Washington in gratitude to his Irish supporters once offered this prayer:

“…when Ireland shall strike her harp to the wild notes
of Erin and Liberty, the ocean breeze will bear to her
shores the prayers of Americans, to cheer her in her
glorious struggle, and hail her regenerate in the rights
of mankind.

Ireland, thou friend of my country in my country’s most
friendless days, much injured, much enduring land,
accept this poor tribute from one who esteems thy worth,
and mourns thy desolation. May the God of Heaven,
in His justice and mercy, grant thee more prosperous
fortunes and in His own good time, cause the sun of
Freedom to shed its benign radiance on the Emerald Isle.”

Colonel John Parke Custis, Washington’s adopted son and Robert E. Lee’s father-in-law wrote:

“…let the Shamrock be entwined with the laurels of the
Revolution; and truth and justice, guiding the pen of
history, inscribe on the tablets of America’s remembrance:
‘Eternal gratitude to Irishmen.’”

Henry Knox, one of Washington’s Irish generals, was appointed Secretary of War by President Washington. Knox, the son of Andrew Knox an Irish immigrant, replaced Lamb as head of the Artillery during the American Revolution. After the war, he replaced Washington as the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army 1783-1784. Henry Knox served as the Secretary of War under the Articles of Confederation 1785-1789.

William Mooney founded Tammany Hall in New York which grows to control the cities politics.

John Adams is elected as Washington’s Vice President, there is evidence the Adams family was Irish on their mother’s side.

Thomas Jefferson served as Washington’s Secretary of State.

George Bryan was elected President of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was born in Dublin. He supported a law which he passed abolishing slavery in Pennsylvania.

John and Henry Shears of Cork were present at the storming of the Bastille.

1790 The site of the Federal capital, Washington D.C. was deeded to the United States by Irishman Daniel Carroll.

John Carroll is consecrated as America’s first Catholic bishop in Baltimore. His area of responsibility includes all the American colonies. Bishop Carroll later founded Georgetown University.

“Address of the Roman Catholics” was sent to George Washington by Charles Carroll, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Dominick Lynch, Daniel Carroll and Bishop John Carroll, asking for Catholics to be granted at least minimal rights.

1791 Wolf Tone, a rising leader of the Protestant Patriot party, feels that group has grown too cautious and founds the Society of United Irishmen. The Society of United Irishmen was dedicated to the union of Irishmen of all faiths in pursuit of democratic reforms.

Kilkenny native James Hoban won the design contest for the “President’s Palace”, later known as the White House. Hoban based the winning design on Leinster House in Dublin. Previously, he built the capital at Columbia, South Carolina.

1792 A national Catholic convention met in Ireland.

1793 William Pitt pressures the Protestant Irish Parliament to give propertied Catholics the right to vote.

George Washington, and James Hoban in his position as Master Mason of the Federal of Free and Accepted Masons, laid the cornerstone of the White House.

1794 John Barry made the Senior Captain of the reorganized United States Navy.

Wolfe Tone is forced to go underground with his movement. He becomes strongly influenced by the French Revolution.

General “Mad Anthony” Wayne won an important battle against the Indians of the Ohio region in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The next year the Indians signed the Treaty of Greenville, giving up the Ohio territory.

The “Whiskey Rebellion” in western Pennsylvania was a revolt of Irish farmers who made their own whiskey not wanting to pay Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton’s excise tax. Washington put down the rebellion with troops. Jefferson, who already resigned from the Cabinet, criticized the government’s actions.

1796 John Adams elected President of the United States by three electoral votes over Thomas Jefferson.

James McHenry made Secretary of War, he was born in Ballymena, Ireland.

Organization in Ireland of Yeomanry militia units to serve as military police in an effort by the Irish Parliament to curb insurrection.

1798 Insurrection broke out in Leinster and Ulster. After initial victories, they are put down.

Dublin born, Sir Henry Johnson, who was with Cornwallis at Yorktown, served with him in Ireland when he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Johnson won for Cornwallis a victory at New Ross that broke the momentum of an Irish uprising that was influenced by events in France.

The French landed a force under General Jean Humbert in Connacht, Wolfe Tone is captured together with another French fleet off Ulster. The revolt lasted from Summer to Fall of ‘98 before the English were able to subdue it. The French who participated and survived to the end were allowed to go home, the Irish who participated and survived were killed.

James McKinley, the grandfather of President William McKinley, emigrated from Antrim.

John Adams signed into law the Alien and Sedition Laws. They were offered out of fear the Irish and French would export revolution to America. Among other things the laws change the probationary period for immigrants to become citizens of the United States from two years to 19 years. They also called for the arrest of individuals who criticize the laws or the government.

Matthew Lyon challenges the laws by writing a critical editorial, he is arrested and placed in jail, while there he is elected to the United States Congress.

1799 Edward Rutledge, Irish signer of the Declaration of Independence, was elected Governor of South Carolina.

Thomas McKean was Governor of Pennsylvania until 1806.

Doctor William J. MacNeven arrived from Ireland, he was a participant in the recent revolt. He becomes known as the “Father of American Chemistry.”

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