Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Irish American shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Irish American offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Irish American at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Irish American? Wrong! If the Irish American is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Irish American then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Irish American? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Irish American and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Irish American wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Irish American then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Irish American site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Irish American, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Irish American, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox Ethnic group|group = Irish American|group = Irish American
Gael-Mheiriceánach|image =
|caption = Notable Irish Americans:'Archbishop Fulton Sheen' 'John F. Kennedy' 'Richard J. Daley' 'Mother Jones' 'Francis O'Neill' 'Mary McCarthy (author)' |poptime = Irish35,975,855 Americans12% of the US population (2006)|popplace = Throughout the entire Northeastern United States, much of the Northwestern United States, the West Coast of the United States, Southern United States and Midwestern United States, and the New York City and Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston, Massachusetts areas|langs = American English, Irish language[Christian, [Scots-Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, English Americans-->

Irish Americans (Irish language: Gael-Mheiriceánach) are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in the west European island of Ireland. A total of 35,975,855 Americans (12% of total population) reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey. The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans are German Americans. Note that this does not include those reporting Scots-Irish ancestry, who are counted separately. Immigration to America Catholics Irish Catholics have been Immigration to the United States to the US in steady numbers even before the revolution, some as domestic servants or as a result of penal deportations but their numbers increased immensely by the 1820s when mostly males became involved in canal building, lumbering and civil construction works in the Northeast United States. Small but tight communities developed in growing cities such as Boston, Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island and New York City.The large Erie Canal project was one such example where Irishmen were the majority of the laborers used. During and after the "Great Irish Famine" (or Great Hunger; Irish language: An Gorta Mór) of 1845-1850, millions of Irish Catholics came to North America. Many lived in Canada and the United States. Many Irish who left Ireland for America during the famine and subsequent years did not make their destination. Due to poverty and ill health a significant number died en route. As a result the ships they travelled on became known as coffin ships. Nearly a third of all Irish who left on ships during the famine period to North America emigrated from the United Kingdom to its dominion in Canada, having a large impact on a smaller population there as many arrived in a disease stricken state. Although the greater portion of these arrivals stayed on in Canada, particularly in Toronto and Ontario and remained as subjects of the British Empire, a significant number moved on to the United States to join quickly growing Irish-American communities, some after staying in Canada for only a few years. Between 1820 and 1860, fully two-thirds of the Irish immigrants to the United States were Catholic and constituted fully one third of all immigrants to the United States. By the 1840s as a result of the famine fully half of all immigrants to the United States originated from Ireland.

Many of these immigrants went to the largest cities, especially Boston and New York, as well as Chicago, San Francisco, California, Saint Louis, Missouri, Hartford, Connecticut, Albany, New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, Michigan. Even today, many of these cities still retain a substantial Irish-American community while New York City still has more people who claim Irish heritage than Dublin's whole population. These cities became the conduit through which Irish, both Protestant and Catholic entered American society. For example, recruiting drives to enlist recent Catholic Irish emigrants as field soldiers during the Mexican-American War and later the US Civil War proved troublesome for the U.S. Army, but without employment some Catholic Irish wound up enlisting anyway. Draft riots occurred, the most well known the New York Draft Riots resulting from conscription ordered by President Lincoln in 1863.Additionally, the Protestant Irish still held familial and clan ties to many Americans who had arrived in the preceding decades. As a result, although both the Protestant and Catholic Irish who immigrated in the years between 1820 and 1860 arrived under harsh conditions, their cultural, ancestral, religious and linguistic differences were sufficient to cause a huge divergence in experience.After 1860, Irish Catholic immigration continued, a lot of it chain migration mostly to the large cities where Irish American neighborhoods were previously established.

Protestants Scots-Irish The term Ulster-Scots (aka Ulster-Scots or Northern Irish) is usually used to designate descendants of immigrants from Ulster - a region where much intermingling of Scots, English, and Irish people took place due to the Ulster Plantations. The number of this specific group is reported by the United States Census of 2000 as being around 4.9 million. However, due to some disparity in naming convention, some estimate the actual number to be in the region of 23 million to 30 million., dyed green for the 2005 St. Patrick's Day celebration.

The primary origin of this large population is centered around a quarter of a million Scots-Irish who fled the economic distress and social upheaval. They emigrated to America primarily before 1776 as subjects of the British Empire moving from one region to another. They settled especially in frontier areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, where land was free and collective action against Indian raids was needed. Given large tracts of free land, subsidized by British and colonial authorities, tens of thousands of these Protestant Scots-Irish became the force which pacified the American frontier. Many joined Presbyterian and Methodist churches.

The term Anglo-Irish is usually used to designate Anglican (see Church of Ireland) and Protestant Irish of English descent. They primarily originated from the areas of Dublin, Cork (city), Wexford, and the old Pale of Ireland, and moved following the upheavals of the Irish wars and the economic depression caused by the take-over of commercial regulation from the Kingdom of Ireland to the Kingdom of Great Britain. Much like the Scots-Irish, these colonists were also veterans of low-intensity warfare, were often former soldiers, and thus were encouraged to settle in frontier areas. Here they intermingled with the Scots-Irish to such an extent that the ability to distinguish between the two groups slowly became extinguished.

Some see a distinction between Catholic 'Irish Americans' and Protestant 'Scots-Irish' and 'Anglo-Irish' (though not all Scots-Irish migrants were specifically Protestant). Many people of both Anglo-Irish and Scots-Irish descent before 1849 described themselves as, simply, Irish. As Irish Catholic began to enter the U.S. in greater numbers the distinction Scots-Irish became popularized.

Two possible reasons have been suggested for the disparity of the figures of the census and the estimation. The first is that the English and Scots-Irish may quite often regard themselves as simply having either Irish ancestry (which 10.8% of Americans reported) or Scottish ancestry (reported by 4.9 million or 1.7% of the total population) or English ancestry. The other is that most of the descendants of this historical group have integrated themselves into American society, even reporting their ancestry as simply "American" (the most common ancestry in areas historically settled by the English and Scots-Irish mostly throughout much of the Southern United States).

The 'English' and 'Scots-Irish' Protestants, in contrast with later Catholic Irish immigrants, assimilated quickly into the new society, many abandoning old-world characteristics they no longer found useful, as Frederick Jackson Turner explained in his Frontier Thesis. That is they became "American" and indeed helped redefine what it meant to be American.

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the historical roots of Irish Protestants in North America.

The Protestant Irish, particularly of the Scots-Irish background usually retained a strong interest in farming, herding, and hunting. Additionally through the cousinage and clan ties many of the Scots-Irish were rapidly encouraged to move onto the frontier where fellow Scots-Irish and American natives of Scots-Irish background awaited. Nonetheless, a significant number of the Scots-Irish who remained in the cities of the United States quickly took advantage of the new Republic's opportunities and assimilated into the artisan, craftsmen, and small business classes. However, significant opposition in the political classes remained even against the Scots-Irish and they were discriminated against.

Occupations Irish Catholic immigrants went directly to the cities, mill towns and railroad or canal construction sites in the east coast. Few became farmers. They were hired by Irish labour contractors to work in "labour gangs" as manual labourers on canals, railroads, streets, sewers and other construction projects, particularly in New York state and New England. Large numbers moved to New England mill towns, such as Lowell, Massachusetts, Fall River, Massachusetts and Milford, Massachusetts, where Protestant owners of textile mills welcomed the new low-wage workers. They took the jobs previously held by Yankee Protestant women known as Lowell girls. A large fraction of Irish Catholic women took jobs as maids in middle class households and hotels.

The Scots-Irish were frontiersmen who retained a strong interest in farming, herding, and hunting. (McWhinney 1989)

The main business enterprises set up by the Irish were taverns and construction.

Large numbers of unemployed Irish Catholics lived in squalid conditions in the new city slums.

Although the Irish Catholics started very low on the social status scale, by 1900, they had jobs and earnings about equal on average to their neighbors. After 1945, the Catholic Irish consistently ranked toward the top of the social hierarchy, thanks especially to their high rate of college attendance. 1993 They Look Cool in their uniforms

The Irish quickly found employment in the police departments of major cities, particularly in the North East. In the 1860s more than half of those arrested in New York City were Irish born or of Irish descent but nearly half of the City's law enforcement officers were also Irish. By the turn of the century, 5 out of 6 NYPD officers was Irish-American. Irish-Americans continue to have a disproportionate membership in the law enforcement community, especially in New England, where they continue to have a dominating role. When the Emerald Society of the Boston Police Department was formed in 1973, half of the city's police officers became members.

Discrimination and prejudice It was common for Irishmen to be discriminated against in social situations. Intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants was uncommon (and strongly discouraged by both ministers and priests). An important response was the creation of a parochial school system, in addition to numerous colleges, that isolated about half the Irish youth from the public schools.

Nativist prejudice against Irish Catholics reached a peak in the mid-1850s with the Know Nothing Movement, which tried to oust Catholics from public office.

After 1860 the Irish sang songs (see illustration) about signs reading "HELP WANTED - NO IRISH NEED APPLY", which were also referred to as "the NINA signs." The song had a deep impact on the Irish sense of discrimination. The issue of job discrimination against Irish immigrants is hotly debated among historians, with some insisting that the "No Irish need apply" signs so familiar to the Irish in memory were myths,, and others arguing that the Irish continued to be discriminated against in various professions into the 20th century. While the Irish dominated such occupations as domestic service, building, and factory work, they were not present in large numbers in the professions, finance, and many businesses. In response, the Irish clung to their occupational niches fiercely, blocking attempts by newer immigrant groups and African Americans to enter them, and earning them a reputation for violence. (See also: Anti-Irish racism)

{{Infobox Ethnic group|group = Irish American|group = Irish American
Gael-Mheiriceánach|image =
|caption = Notable Irish Americans:'Archbishop Fulton Sheen' 'John F. Kennedy' 'Richard J. Daley' 'Mother Jones' 'Francis O'Neill' 'Mary McCarthy (author)' |poptime = Irish35,975,855 Americans12% of the US population (2006)|popplace = Throughout the entire Northeastern United States, much of the Northwestern United States, the West Coast of the United States, Southern United States and Midwestern United States, and the New York City and Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston, Massachusetts areas|langs = American English, Irish language[Christian, [Scots-Irish Americans, Scottish Americans, Welsh Americans, English Americans-->

Irish Americans (Irish language: Gael-Mheiriceánach) are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in the west European island of Ireland. A total of 35,975,855 Americans (12% of total population) reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey. The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans are German Americans. Note that this does not include those reporting Scots-Irish ancestry, who are counted separately. Immigration to America Catholics Irish Catholics have been Immigration to the United States to the US in steady numbers even before the revolution, some as domestic servants or as a result of penal deportations but their numbers increased immensely by the 1820s when mostly males became involved in canal building, lumbering and civil construction works in the Northeast United States. Small but tight communities developed in growing cities such as Boston, Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island and New York City.The large Erie Canal project was one such example where Irishmen were the majority of the laborers used. During and after the "Great Irish Famine" (or Great Hunger; Irish language: An Gorta Mór) of 1845-1850, millions of Irish Catholics came to North America. Many lived in Canada and the United States. Many Irish who left Ireland for America during the famine and subsequent years did not make their destination. Due to poverty and ill health a significant number died en route. As a result the ships they travelled on became known as coffin ships. Nearly a third of all Irish who left on ships during the famine period to North America emigrated from the United Kingdom to its dominion in Canada, having a large impact on a smaller population there as many arrived in a disease stricken state. Although the greater portion of these arrivals stayed on in Canada, particularly in Toronto and Ontario and remained as subjects of the British Empire, a significant number moved on to the United States to join quickly growing Irish-American communities, some after staying in Canada for only a few years. Between 1820 and 1860, fully two-thirds of the Irish immigrants to the United States were Catholic and constituted fully one third of all immigrants to the United States. By the 1840s as a result of the famine fully half of all immigrants to the United States originated from Ireland.

Many of these immigrants went to the largest cities, especially Boston and New York, as well as Chicago, San Francisco, California, Saint Louis, Missouri, Hartford, Connecticut, Albany, New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, Michigan. Even today, many of these cities still retain a substantial Irish-American community while New York City still has more people who claim Irish heritage than Dublin's whole population. These cities became the conduit through which Irish, both Protestant and Catholic entered American society. For example, recruiting drives to enlist recent Catholic Irish emigrants as field soldiers during the Mexican-American War and later the US Civil War proved troublesome for the U.S. Army, but without employment some Catholic Irish wound up enlisting anyway. Draft riots occurred, the most well known the New York Draft Riots resulting from conscription ordered by President Lincoln in 1863.Additionally, the Protestant Irish still held familial and clan ties to many Americans who had arrived in the preceding decades. As a result, although both the Protestant and Catholic Irish who immigrated in the years between 1820 and 1860 arrived under harsh conditions, their cultural, ancestral, religious and linguistic differences were sufficient to cause a huge divergence in experience.After 1860, Irish Catholic immigration continued, a lot of it chain migration mostly to the large cities where Irish American neighborhoods were previously established.

Protestants Scots-Irish The term Ulster-Scots (aka Ulster-Scots or Northern Irish) is usually used to designate descendants of immigrants from Ulster - a region where much intermingling of Scots, English, and Irish people took place due to the Ulster Plantations. The number of this specific group is reported by the United States Census of 2000 as being around 4.9 million. However, due to some disparity in naming convention, some estimate the actual number to be in the region of 23 million to 30 million., dyed green for the 2005 St. Patrick's Day celebration.

The primary origin of this large population is centered around a quarter of a million Scots-Irish who fled the economic distress and social upheaval. They emigrated to America primarily before 1776 as subjects of the British Empire moving from one region to another. They settled especially in frontier areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, where land was free and collective action against Indian raids was needed. Given large tracts of free land, subsidized by British and colonial authorities, tens of thousands of these Protestant Scots-Irish became the force which pacified the American frontier. Many joined Presbyterian and Methodist churches.

The term Anglo-Irish is usually used to designate Anglican (see Church of Ireland) and Protestant Irish of English descent. They primarily originated from the areas of Dublin, Cork (city), Wexford, and the old Pale of Ireland, and moved following the upheavals of the Irish wars and the economic depression caused by the take-over of commercial regulation from the Kingdom of Ireland to the Kingdom of Great Britain. Much like the Scots-Irish, these colonists were also veterans of low-intensity warfare, were often former soldiers, and thus were encouraged to settle in frontier areas. Here they intermingled with the Scots-Irish to such an extent that the ability to distinguish between the two groups slowly became extinguished.

Some see a distinction between Catholic 'Irish Americans' and Protestant 'Scots-Irish' and 'Anglo-Irish' (though not all Scots-Irish migrants were specifically Protestant). Many people of both Anglo-Irish and Scots-Irish descent before 1849 described themselves as, simply, Irish. As Irish Catholic began to enter the U.S. in greater numbers the distinction Scots-Irish became popularized.

Two possible reasons have been suggested for the disparity of the figures of the census and the estimation. The first is that the English and Scots-Irish may quite often regard themselves as simply having either Irish ancestry (which 10.8% of Americans reported) or Scottish ancestry (reported by 4.9 million or 1.7% of the total population) or English ancestry. The other is that most of the descendants of this historical group have integrated themselves into American society, even reporting their ancestry as simply "American" (the most common ancestry in areas historically settled by the English and Scots-Irish mostly throughout much of the Southern United States).

The 'English' and 'Scots-Irish' Protestants, in contrast with later Catholic Irish immigrants, assimilated quickly into the new society, many abandoning old-world characteristics they no longer found useful, as Frederick Jackson Turner explained in his Frontier Thesis. That is they became "American" and indeed helped redefine what it meant to be American.

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the historical roots of Irish Protestants in North America.

The Protestant Irish, particularly of the Scots-Irish background usually retained a strong interest in farming, herding, and hunting. Additionally through the cousinage and clan ties many of the Scots-Irish were rapidly encouraged to move onto the frontier where fellow Scots-Irish and American natives of Scots-Irish background awaited. Nonetheless, a significant number of the Scots-Irish who remained in the cities of the United States quickly took advantage of the new Republic's opportunities and assimilated into the artisan, craftsmen, and small business classes. However, significant opposition in the political classes remained even against the Scots-Irish and they were discriminated against.

Occupations Irish Catholic immigrants went directly to the cities, mill towns and railroad or canal construction sites in the east coast. Few became farmers. They were hired by Irish labour contractors to work in "labour gangs" as manual labourers on canals, railroads, streets, sewers and other construction projects, particularly in New York state and New England. Large numbers moved to New England mill towns, such as Lowell, Massachusetts, Fall River, Massachusetts and Milford, Massachusetts, where Protestant owners of textile mills welcomed the new low-wage workers. They took the jobs previously held by Yankee Protestant women known as Lowell girls. A large fraction of Irish Catholic women took jobs as maids in middle class households and hotels.

The Scots-Irish were frontiersmen who retained a strong interest in farming, herding, and hunting. (McWhinney 1989)

The main business enterprises set up by the Irish were taverns and construction.

Large numbers of unemployed Irish Catholics lived in squalid conditions in the new city slums.

Although the Irish Catholics started very low on the social status scale, by 1900, they had jobs and earnings about equal on average to their neighbors. After 1945, the Catholic Irish consistently ranked toward the top of the social hierarchy, thanks especially to their high rate of college attendance. 1993 They Look Cool in their uniforms

The Irish quickly found employment in the police departments of major cities, particularly in the North East. In the 1860s more than half of those arrested in New York City were Irish born or of Irish descent but nearly half of the City's law enforcement officers were also Irish. By the turn of the century, 5 out of 6 NYPD officers was Irish-American. Irish-Americans continue to have a disproportionate membership in the law enforcement community, especially in New England, where they continue to have a dominating role. When the Emerald Society of the Boston Police Department was formed in 1973, half of the city's police officers became members.

Discrimination and prejudice It was common for Irishmen to be discriminated against in social situations. Intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants was uncommon (and strongly discouraged by both ministers and priests). An important response was the creation of a parochial school system, in addition to numerous colleges, that isolated about half the Irish youth from the public schools.

Nativist prejudice against Irish Catholics reached a peak in the mid-1850s with the Know Nothing Movement, which tried to oust Catholics from public office.

After 1860 the Irish sang songs (see illustration) about signs reading "HELP WANTED - NO IRISH NEED APPLY", which were also referred to as "the NINA signs." The song had a deep impact on the Irish sense of discrimination. The issue of job discrimination against Irish immigrants is hotly debated among historians, with some insisting that the "No Irish need apply" signs so familiar to the Irish in memory were myths,, and others arguing that the Irish continued to be discriminated against in various professions into the 20th century. While the Irish dominated such occupations as domestic service, building, and factory work, they were not present in large numbers in the professions, finance, and many businesses. In response, the Irish clung to their occupational niches fiercely, blocking attempts by newer immigrant groups and African Americans to enter them, and earning them a reputation for violence. (See also: Anti-Irish racism)