The Irish didn’t just come to America… they helped build it. Arriving in waves during the 1800s—especially after the Great Famine—Irish immigrants took the hardest, most dangerous jobs the country had to offer. Railroads… canals… coal mines… bridges… Work that broke bodies and ended lives. They dug the foundations of cities, laid thousands of miles of track, fought fires, built police forces, and even shaped America’s labor movement. Many were treated as outcasts—discriminated against, underpaid