Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Charleston. 🍀 Did you know that between 1772-1775 it is estimated that 1,000 Irish immigrants arrived in Charleston who were mostly indentured servants?

Charlestonians are used to celebrating St. Pat’s at Tommy Condon’s Irish Pub or at the annual parade, but today we are saving the green beer + big parade for 2022 and throwing it back to the nineteenth century when the Irish first arrived in South Carolina. Groups immigrated here to escape the Great Famine in the 1840s and settled across the Palmetto State.

What we learned

According to the 1860 census, approx. 8,800 people of Irish descent lived in SC
Nearly two-thirds of the Irish immigrants lived in Charleston
Along with laboring, immigrants were dominant in the police force + a variety of business ventures
Irish laborers helped build the U.S. Custom House on East Bay St. + railroad lines leading out of the city
Other Irish settlements in SC were centered around major public works projects, including a growing Irish presence in Columbia.

Did you know?

First-generation Carolinian brothers Edward and John Rutledge (of Irish descent) were signers of the Declaration of Independence + the United States Constitution
Irish-born Pierce Butler also signed the Constitution + became the first United States senator from the SC
Every prominent Irish national movement had a SC branch
Future Irish president Eamon De Valera visited Charleston + Columbia in 1920 to speak to supporters of the Irish War of Independence

Want more luck of the Irish? Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about Charleston’s Irish history + learn how to take yourself on a local walking Irish tour here.