Or to put it in a simpler fashion, we are a nation populated by our immigrant ancestors, with the exception of the indigenous people. The only thing they brought with them, in many cases, were a few belongings, their ethnic identities, and a desire for a fresh start. They settled in neighborhoods, often populated with folks from the same place they came from. For example, in Chicago, even today although not to as great a degree, the Sligo folks lived over on those blocks, the Galway folks over there, Clare folks all together, and so on. Because those neighborhoods produced marriages, and had their culture in common, it survived and became a source of pride. And so it was with us. I remember one Grandmother on the hill who admonished her grandkid, "Do you think we really wanted to leave?". They were driven here by the Great Hunger, and need for a job.

It all just adds up to a nation of immigrants generationally finding their identity in the culture of their immigrant ancestors.

Mick