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The Irish have been coming to America ever since the British set up colonies. Their was even at least one Irishman sailing with Christopher Columbus on his voyage to the West Indies. However, the largest number of Irish immigrants started arriving between 1845 and 1852, the years that the Great Famine took place. The Irish came over in large numbers at this time because the British did to little to help them during the Great Famine, which was when potatoes, the main crop grown in Ireland, became infected with fungus, making it inedible. Many people starved and died of hunger during The Famine. Even after the Great Famine ended, many Irish people still came over to the USA because of the Catholic-Protestant and the British-Irish conflicts.

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15y ago

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