Butte named most Irish American US city

A survey of cities across the USA has revealed that where Boston is unsurprisingly the most Irish American of the major cities, Butte in Montana has the most Americans of Irish descent of any US city. The figures come from the US Census of 2010 in which the Census Bureau asked respondents to note down the ethnic group with which they most identify.

Butte claimed that 23.6 per cent of its population originally came from Irish stock meaning it has the highest concentration of Irish Americans of all the 942 metro- or micropolitan cities in the US.

Other cities found to be made up of more than 20 per cent Irish Americans included Cape Cod, Corinth and Ocean City. Of the 50 biggest cities in the US Boston proved to have the largest Irish population with 19.8 per cent claiming they were descendents of Irish ancestors.

David Emmons, who published a book in 1989 examining the reasons for such a large Irish population in the city of Butte, explained that cities in the West were usually more tolerant of Irish Catholics and also provided work in the mining camps. The historian adds that Butte was home to the Anaconda Copper Mine where immigrants were able to readily find jobs.

A total of 33.4 million across all of the 942 cities examined claimed to be Irish American. However, the figure was dwarfed somewhat by the 45.7 million claiming to be German American.