Today is Saint Patricks' Day, a celebration of Irish heritage. Saint Patrick's Day began, of course, as a religious holiday. But time and customs have transformed it over the years into a pageant of culture; a chance to acknowledge the contributions that Irish-Americans have made to the US. Yet Irish heritage was not always so widely embraced. During the Potato Famine of the 19th century, nearly 1 million Irish immigrated to America -- the first large wave of refugees the country had ever encountered. Many faced virulent prejudice, and were denied employment and basic dignity upon arrival to this country. Despite these obstacles, doors were opened for the Irish, and generations hence, the Irish have made an indelible mark on the country.
We are now at a point where America is moving in the most nationalistic direction we have seen in decades. President Trump's new executive order bars immigrants and refugees from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen on the pretext that this will make the country safer. This begs the question: What if we had, in the 19thcentury, barred entry to Irish refugees? What would America look like today? How would the country be poorer?
Perhaps one way to view these questions is to look at the Irish immigrants who shaped this country. I focus here on three immigrants who have influenced my field--population health--while recognizing that the breadth of Irish contributions extends well beyond health.
In 1771, James McHenry immigrated to Philadelphia. He was 18, and the first member of his family to make the journey. Choosing a medical career, McHenry would later spend two years as an apprentice to Benjamin Rush -- a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a friend of Thomas Jefferson -- from whom he acquired the skills of his trade and a political education. As a military surgeon during the Revolutionary War, he cared for the sick and wounded, before coming to the attention of General George Washington. As a Maryland representative at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he would lend his signature to the founding charter of the US, establishing the political system under which we live, and codifying, in the Bill of Rights, the principle safeguards of a free society.
Like Dr. McHenry, the contributions of Mary O'Connell, known as Sister Anthony, were also informed by war. Born in Limerick, Ireland in 1814, she immigrated to Massachusetts with her family when she was young. She became a nun at 21, and later served as the head of nursing at St. John's Hospital in Cincinnati. Soon after the Civil War began in 1861, city leaders asked Sister Anthony if a group of nuns could help ease the suffering of soldiers afflicted by a measles outbreak at a Union Army camp. Sister Anthony agreed. This mission would lead to even more service, as the nuns spent the war traveling with the Army, ministering to soldiers in hospitals and on battlefields. During her service, Sister Anthony pioneered the technique of battlefield triage, saving lives more efficiently by allocating treatment among patients to maximize survival rates. The technique remains a critical practice in war zones and among disaster relief workers. For her innovation, and her compassion for Northerners and Southerners alike, Sister Anthony would receive praise from President Lincoln, and earn a nickname, "Angel of the Battlefield."