CARRICKFERGUS

This is for Mustang whose great grandparents are from Carrickfergus. This is Orla Fallon of Celtic Woman singing this song of longing for one's home. I imagine his grandfather missed his home when he came to America. Immigrants of the 19th century underwent such tough times, mostly suffering discrimination because of religion and culture. The "drink" was considered devilish in those days.

My great-grandparents came to America and as German Catholics were separated by religion and language. Much as the Irish, discrimination in jobs and housing kept them at the bottom of the pile. But as many suffered this discrimination, they also overcame it and became major contributors to America today.

Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1860, said it best about immigrants, specifically Germans and Irish,

"The German and Irish millions, like the Negro, have a great deal of guano in their destiny. They are ferried over the Atlantic, and carted over America, to ditch and to drudge, to make corn cheap, and then to lie down prematurely to make a spot of green grass on the prarie."