Wisconsin was already a substantially German state when Irish by the thousands began arriving in the late 1840’s. This toast is my tribute to the Irish men and women who settled here among those whom they found so different and yet were able to find common ground.
IRISH AMONG THE GERMANS: A WISCONSIN TOAST by Rick McNeal
From Counties Donegal and Sligo
Down to Counties Cork and Kerry
From Wicklow, Wexford and West Meath.
Even the northern counties of Antrim, Down and Derry.
From Kells, Kilkenny and Kinsale
From Limerick and Gal-way.
From the 12 Bens of Connemara
To the teaming shores of Bantry Bay.
By tens of thousands they picked up stakes
And moved in mass across the sea
Emigrating to a new land.
Where at last they could all be free.
Wisconsin became a new home
For many displaced members of these Celtic clans.
Leaving behind the Land of Saints and Scholars
For America’s Dairyland.
They settled in places with strange names
Oshkosh, Menasha, Fond du Lac
Spent days working mills and tilling soil
Nights filled with whiskey, song and craic.
They traded Galway for Green Bay
Dublin for De Pere.
Killarney for Kewaunee
Ballybunion for Brown Deer.
A new life they’d create for themselves
Of that they were determined.
They’d adjust to this new land somehow
And live here among the Germans.
Outnumbered by a people
Who preferred lager over stout.
Brats instead of bangers
No boiled cabbage, just sauerkraut.
They’d live among these folk
Who made schnitzel out of veal.
Drank schnapps instead of whiskey
And played polkas, not jigs and reels.
They liked tubas more than bagpipes
If you can imagine such a thing.
Wore dirndls and lederhosen
But no kilts or Claddagh rings.
They’d never heard of “Danny Boy”
But sang “She’s Too Fat For Me”.
And they preferred the “Oompah Pah”
Over the “Deedilly deedilly dee!”
And while they adapted to this new place,
in their fanatic hearts they remained the same.
And never forgot their Irish roots
Or the Emerald isle from which they came.
So raise a glass to your Irish forebearers
To show their efforts were not in vain.
And together cry out “Slainte!”
Instead of singing “Danke Schoen!”
