ds published by the Virginia Historical Society,
and in all County histories of Virginia, there are numerous
references to the Irish "redemptioners" who were brought to that
colony during the seventeenth century. But the redemptioners were not
the only class who came, for the colonial records also contain many
references to Irishmen of good birth and education who received
grants of land in the colony and who, in turn, induced many of their
countrymen to emigrate. Planters named McCarty, Lynch, O'Neill,
Sullivan, Farrell, McDonnell, O'Brien, and others denoting an ancient
Irish lineage appear frequently in the early records. Much that is
romantic is found in the lives of these men and their descendants.
Some of them served in the Council chamber and the field, their sons
and daughters were educated to hold place, with elegance and dignity,
with the foremost of the Cavaliers, and when in after years the great
conflict with England began, Virginians of Irish blood were among the
first and the most eager to answer the call. Those historians who
claim that the South was exclusively an "Anglo-Saxon" heritage would
be completely disillusioned were they to examine the lists of
Colonial and Revolutionary troops of Celtic name who held the Indians
and the British at bay, and who helped in those "troublous times" to
lay the foundations of a great Republic.

There is no portion of the Atlantic seaboard that did not profit by
the Irish immigrations of the seventeenth century. We learn from the
"Irish State Papers" of the year 1595 that ships were regularly
plying between Ireland and Newfoundland, and so important was the
trade between Ireland and the far-distant fishing banks that "all
English ships bound out always made provisions that the convoy out
should remain 48 hours in Cork." In some of Lord Baltimore's accounts
of his voyages to Newfoundland he refers to his having "sailed from
Ireland" and to his "return to Ireland," and so it is highly probable
that he settled Irishmen on his Avalon plantations. After Baltimore's
departure, Lord Falkland also sent out a number of Irish colonists,
and "at a later date they were so largely reinforced by settlers from
Ireland that the Celtic part of the population at this day is not far
short of equality in numbers with the Saxon portion"--(Hatton and
Harvey, _History of Newfoundland_, page 32). Pedley attributes the
large proportion of Irishmen and the influence of the Catholics in
Newfou