For Irish American Heritage Month community leaders hope to move beyond the green stereotypes

March has been federally designated as Irish American Heritage Month every year since 1991. But the month, aimed at highlighting the arts and culture of Ireland and the impact the Irish have had on the United States, doesn’t get much press.

For many Americans, the only Irish thing about March is St. Patrick’s Day. Everybody loves a parade, so it’s not surprising that bagpipes, dancing girls and marching bands overshadow other aspects of Irish culture.

Leaders of Connecticut’s Irish heritage groups love their parades, too. But they know that a day of goofy green clothes and — stereotypically — heavy drinking isn’t the only lasting impression they want of Irish Heritage Month.

“Too often you see on that one day on TV or in newspapers pictures of people in outlandish costumes, drunk,” said James Gallagher of Ancient Order of the Hibernians’ John P. Holland Division in New London. “It really bothers me.”

Bernadette Foley, president and CEO of Glastonbury-based Irish American Home Society, said the commercialization in the United States of St. Patrick’s Day and its parades contributes to its dominant place in the public mindset.

“Americans without a real connection to Ireland probably see St. Patrick’s Day as the one day to celebrate and drink green beer and that’s how they show their heritage,” Foley said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Elizabeth Dalton, president of the Irish History Round Table in Hamden, put it succinctly in an email blast sent this month: “It’s Irish Heritage Month. Help us celebrate the whole month long, not just one day!”

Variety of activities

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in 10 Americans claim Irish ancestry. States with the highest percentage of Irish-identifying residents are all in New England. In Connecticut, 15% of residents claim Irish ancestry.

Connecticut’s Irish heritage groups give Irish-Americans a place to gather and learn about ancestral culture. Demand is steady for this sense of community: Gaelic American Club of Fairfield has 6,000 members and a waiting list.

That club, founded in 1948, offers cultural activities year-round: an Irish dining room, genealogy group, pipe band, Irish dancing, Irish language lessons, hurling club. That club also is the steward of the artworks from Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, the world’s largest collection of art and artifacts about the 1845-1852 Great Hunger, known popularly as the “Irish potato famine.”

GAC President John Brannelly does not believe St. Patrick’s Day is overemphasized. “St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. It is the day that should be most emphasized,” Brannelly said. “Without the Catholic faith in Ireland, there is no Irish tradition.”

But he does believe the public would do well to learn more about Irish history. He stressed that learning why so many Irish people have moved to the United States is essential to understanding both Irish and U.S. history.

“We kind of forget about the oppression of Ireland that led so many people to emigrate. That’s why it’s exciting that [President] Biden will soon celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace accord. There’s been peace in Ireland. Some of that emigration has stopped,” he said.

Foley agrees, citing the immigration during the 19th century as an example of that oppression.

“A lot of people think the famine was just a blight of potatoes. What they don’t know is that it was something that could have been prevented,” Foley said. “There was food and grain on the dock for export out of Ireland when the people of Ireland were starving. It was done on purpose by the English to keep the Irish down.”

In 1997, the Connecticut General Assembly enacted legislation to teach various ethnic studies in public schools, including information about the Great Hunger.

A 2000 report issued by the state Department of Education, “The Irish: The Great Hunger and Irish Immigration to America,” called the Great Hunger “a haunting example of the desire of one group to dominate or eliminate another for economic and political gain.”

Fighting stereotypes

Foley’s organization has about 2,000 members. Year-round, it offers dance classes, concerts, Irish sports, an Irish book club and an Irish poets society.

“Our whole mission is to preserve traditions,” she said.

Part of preserving tradition is protecting the community from defamation. Dalton said this was one reason John Boyle founded the Irish History Round Table in 1971.

“He was very upset over the Hallmark and other card companies that always had this stereotype of the drunkard for St. Patrick’s Day cards. We challenged them. Now we do not see that. That idea will not be endured,” she said.

“That amount of correction has to happen,” Dalton said. “It’s one thing to have a sense of humor about your faults, but it’s another to portray a stereotype.”

Foley said that stereotype lingers nonetheless, but Irish-Americans have let it slide.

“We are so politically correct today but yet you still see Irish being portrayed as drunken fools,” she said. “The Irish have tremendous senses of humor. These things roll off their backs. That perception is always out there. Should it be? No. But there are bigger fish to fry.”

The perception is there even today. Alcohol-focused St. Patrick’s Day cards still can be bought, though selection is slim. And this week, a local civic group posted on its website, to promote Saturday’s parade: “Drape yourself in green, drink a bunch of Guinness, eat some corned beef and do a li’l jig to Hartford for all the celebrations.”

What is Irish?

One key factor in understanding Irish culture is knowing the difference between Irish culture and Irish-American culture. Like corned beef — which is eaten on March 17 in the United States, but not in Ireland — St. Patrick’s Day parades are an Irish-American creation, Foley said.

“The beginning of the parades occurred here. My mom told me when she was a kid, St. Patrick’s Day was a holy day of obligation. You went to church. There was not a parade, celebration, drinking, hooting and hollering,” she said.

“Now they’ve been brought to Ireland and most towns throw their own St. Patrick’s Day parade,” Foley said.

The world’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held by an Irish vicar in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1601. In 1737, Irish soldiers held a parade in Boston, and in 1762 in New York City. As more Irish emigrated to the United States, St. Patrick’s Day parades flourished nationwide.

Dalton emphasized that Irish-Americans created parades, clubs and Irish Heritage Month to assert their identity, in ways that aren’t necessary in the Old Country.

“With the Irish nationality, there’s always the confusion that they are English and contribute to the English culture. This is due to the forced Anglicization of their names, as well as Ireland’s place names, when the English destroyed the use of Irish language in Ireland,” she said.

“A months-long exposure to Irish culture goes a long way toward clearing this up,” she said.

Gallagher said he hopes that a broader definition of Irish heritage emerges over the years that will encompass an entire month of cultural happenings, or even year-round.

“That’s what we want to get,” he said. “But I’m 90 years old. I don’t expect to see any major change in the time I have left.”

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.