Irish history helps us understand mass migration today

Michael K. Miggins, my father, immigrated from Ireland to New York City in 1924. His father encouraged his seven children to escape the violent aftermath of the Easter Rebellion of 1916 in Ireland.

The uprising secured independence but faced a civil war over a sectarian treaty that separated six Protestant counties in the north from the Catholic south. Britain threatened to invade Ireland if it didn’t accept the treaty. Catholics were now pitted against one another as pro-treaty supporters ruthlessly won the battle. The outcome did not solve the continuing poverty of Irish people in their homeland that had been systematically stripped of its wealth by Great Britain for more than 500 years.

My father was landless and impoverished. Anglo-Protestant Great Britain had denied the native people education, voting and their land, native tongue and religion. They had converted to Catholicism under the missionary influence of St. Patrick in the fifth century. England was indifferent to the potato famine of 1845 that caused a million and a half to leave and a million to perish. Modern methods of farming could replace tenant farmers. Irish-Americans are the result of ethnic cleansing.

The public needs to remember Ireland’s history to understand the same tragedy today.

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Irish history helps us understand mass migration today."