BUTTE — Representatives from the Beare Peninsula in Ireland brought more than 50 people and their music to Butte to celebrate the connection between two communities that are thousands of miles apart.
Celebrating the Butte-Ireland connection - watch:
“I love it, yeah, I’m walking in the footsteps of my ancestors,” said Tony Curtin of Cork City.
More than 50 citizens and some dignitaries from southern Ireland were honored in the rotunda of the Butte Courthouse.
“We recognize the thousands of miners from the Beare Peninsula, whose strength and skill powered Butte’s mines,” said Butte Chief Executive J.P. Gallagher.
The group, which included political representatives from Ireland, is touring Southwest Montana.
Many were eager to visit Butte, like Tony Curtin, who said dozens of his relatives came to Butte in the late 19th century to work in the mines.
“It was a huge part of my life growing up hearing about Butte and this magical place, and I’m here at last,” said Curtin.
Some of the guests said they wanted to connect with relatives still living in Butte, or learn about their family history.
“This is my grandfather, Con, or Cornelius Creedon, and this is the Montana State football team of 1911. I know very little about him, so I’m hoping to learn more,” said Joe Creedon of Inchydoney, Ireland, as he held up an old photo.
The Montana Historical Society said in a news release that the Irish delegation also visited Helena and got to see and learn about the iconic statue of General Thomas Francis Meagher in front of the state capitol.
Meagher, born in Waterford, Ireland, was a leading figure in the Irish Independence movement of the mid-19th century. He arrived in Montana in 1865, having been appointed as Territorial Secretary. Over the course of the next two years, he twice served as Acting Territorial Governor.
“From the shamrock on the Little Shell tribal flag, to the statue of Senator Mike Mansfield, who was the son of Irish immigrants, the Montana Capitol is replete with physical and emotional connections to Ireland,” said Darby Bramble, spokesperson for the Montana Historical Society.
Organizers of the trip plan to continue having a lasting relationship with Butte and Montana.
“Butte has always been seen as the parish that was 4,200 miles away, because our people were there, that’s where we went, that’s where they lived, they made lives for themselves,” said trip organizer Wayne O’Sullivan Shandon.
The Mining City has long been famous for its Irish roots and proud history of celebrating all things Ireland.
Montana and Irish-American history are closely woven together, with the state seeing a large influx of Irish immigrants during the last four decades of the 19th century. The travel website AFAR noted: "According to the most recent U.S. Census, Butte is the most Irish city in the union per capita; almost a full quarter of its residents are of Irish descent."
"We know that a lot of the Irish that came to Montana came from the Western Seaboard of Ireland, and we know that for the most part were Irish speakers, so they were post-famine immigrants that left Ireland, so when they came here to Montana, they came steeped into Irish Tradition," said Ciara Ryan with the Montana History Foundation.
During the late 1800s, Irish and Catholics sometimes faced discrimination in the eastern parts of the United States. Montana - Butte and Anaconda in particular - was lauded as a place Irish could go to be free from persecution and make an honest wage for a day’s work. "They did face significant discrimination in the 1850s and again in the 1890s," said Emmons.
"Signs were sometimes posted outside of businesses back east that read 'Irish need not apply.'" Emmons believes that could have enticed many Irish Americans to head west to Montana.
Irish businessmen gained control of the hard rock mining industry and controlled a large portion of the state’s wealth. Another way Irish Americans showed their strength against the discrimination was by planning and celebrating the Saint Patrick's Day Parade. "It started in New York in 1852, because the Irish were saying we are here," Emmons said.
The website Irish Central noted: "By 1900, half of Butte’s 30,000 population were Irish; Butte’s, suburbs were named Hungry Hill, Dublin Gulch, and Cork Town. Irish societies flourished too, with the Clann na Gaels, the Gaelic League, the Parnell Guard, the Emmet Guard, Daughters of Erin, the Robert Emmet Literary Association, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians."
