17th March 461 - This Day in History - The death of St. Patrick

(thank you clevelandmemory.org for the bulk of this post)

1935 Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade

Living just west of downtown Cleveland, the significance of this day is never lost on me.  I am surrounded by churches named St. Colman and St. Patricks, as well as literally dozens of pubs with names like Sullivan's, McCarthy's, McGinty's Achill Isle Pub, Shamrock Tavern and McKenna's. The first year I lived here, I watched in amazement as the streets in this suburb were filled with people - dressed in green, and celebrating.  It looked like New Year's Eve!  So much of this area was settled and built by our Irish ancestors, and to see it feted so intently is always a fantastic sight.

1935 Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade

Today, Cuyahoga county is home to 1.2 million people, but back in 1825 - there were only 1,000 persons living in the Cleveland area.  That year, about 200 Irish had settled in the village. The Erie Canal had been completed, and the Ohio was about to get under way.  They were not welcomed by locals, who didn't much like the rag-tag men, who spoke English but with a brogue and were short on manners.  The Yankees felt these men were interested in obtaining the bare necessities of life and drinking the saloons along the riverfront dry. Quickly, the locals ceded the marshlands at the river's mouth to the Irish, in a hope to keep them at bay a bit.

You see, when Moses Cleveland first came upon that area, he had to come three-quarters of a mile into the main channel before finding solid ground to stand on. The land around the river's mouth and for a half mile south was pure swamp. In 1827, federal funding and engineering expertise allowed local citizens to dig a channel, and created the river's mouth as we know it today.  Naturally, the Irish did the digging.  The first piece of solid land amid the swamps was fittingly named Whiskey Island.  This peninsula is still known by that name, and is home to the Cleveland Bulk Terminal, Whiskey Island Marina and Wendy Park.  But back in it's heyday, it had 13 pubs - quite the achievement considering the whole area was only a mile long and a third of a mile at its widest point.  For many, many years it was the wildest, bawdiest part of Cleveland.

Street Map for Whiskey Island

Their lives were hard, and they were often swindled by their employers.  And since jail terms for debtors were still the law of the land, they had little choice but to make their mark on the contractor's ledger and hope they could work hard and "settle up" with the next month's work.  Soon, however, the boats actually coming up and down the canal from Cleveland to Akron provided better work for them as deck hands, cooks and even some helmsmen. The great spread of Irish and their socioeconomic climb throughout Cleveland began here; and was immensely helped along by the influx of fortunate immigrants who landed safely after the horrible potato famine back in their homeland.

Cleveland and its close suburbs are deeply ethnic in nature to this day - this we know. But this weekend, I'm most proud of those hardworking canal diggers who in a very real way dug the way for the Irish who came after them, and helped to build this great area. 

Today, The West-Side Irish American Club is one of several groups locally who have a long history of keeping the Irish traditions alive.  Next time you have a Friday Date Night, or just want to celebrate the end of a hard work week, their McNeeley Library is open Friday evenings from 6:30-8:30.  Now, which public house you choose for a meal and a pint is completely up to you.

(p.s. another great genealogy link for Irish family history is found here.)