What is the Luck of the Irish?

Nearby Irish says, the luck of the Irish reminds us Irish, we are of a special luck, and to always be a watching for it.

No matter where you are geographically, there are probably some Irish genes nearby. That has a lot to do with migration, and that is saying it very nicely. From the Caesars of ancient Rome through some insane sociopath Christian kings, to Cromwell, the Irish people have seen it all.

The druids who survived Saint Patrick's tree felling and genocide went somewhere, and the slaves in Australia bred and migrated through Southeast Asia. The slaves in the Caribbean, bred and migrated, and especially in the USA, where some

Irish slaves were not freed until Abraham Lincoln outlawed slavery in the USA. That's a fact.

North, south, east, west -- we are everyone. There are Irish slaves who would have earned their freedom by fighting and surviving many wars, from medieval times to the Mexican American war, and the Irish always had deserters that left the army of the oppressors and fought for the underdog, just for a chance to do right. These people are heroes. Having a soul that got tortured for a thousand years does something to you and your heart. But we're still here, and we still love with our big Irish hearts

If Irish history teaches us anything, it is that we are some of the most unbreakable people on the planet, and that we will fight and die for a chance to do what's right. That is something to be proud of. But if we do have luck, it is as good as it is bad.

The phrase originated in America. There were Irish in America from the early days, however they arrived in huge numbers in the late 19th Century. They had been forced out of their own country and arrived poor and sick in the U.S. They were discriminated against and lived in squalor. Yet in a couple of generations they had, in the main, become hugely successful – in education, literary affairs, politics, business, construction and so on. I think that the ‘luck of the Irish’ has undertones that relate to both sides of this coin.

It is so odd how the Irish were treated, depending on where they came to in the U.S. For all our other faults, in the South, the Irish were always welcomed, and fully 80 percent of all native Southerners can trace their ancestry back to Ireland -- and they do so with pride. Being Irish was never a problem in the South.

Actually, anon170803 has it the closest. When they were first coming to America in floods, they were looked down upon more than any other bloodline, including Africans/blacks, Chinese and any foreigners that came en masse, and as such, discrimination popped up. They were greatly segregated into their own terrible living conditions, diners, stores, etc. You name it, they were dealing with it. It was a term of dismissal of the bad luck they were receiving, and was coined by other races/ethnicities/backgrounds in New York when things didn't quite go so well. "I lost my job today and can't feed the family. Must be the luck of the Irish."

Then, as time went by, America forgot the dark roots, something they were almost as good as Germany at doing, and the term started to take on new definition, since Irish was almost a desirable thing to trace back to. They were able to hold their liquor (sometimes), had a hard-working background, strong religious upbringing. They went from poverty levels to damn near owning Boston. Joking on the last bit, just a little, but the rest is true, and needed adding to anon170803's very accurate comment.

The luck of the Irish is bad luck.

The luck of the Irish does owe its origin to the U.S.A. When they arrived, they were very disliked, treated badly, despised and hated. When the Irish had any kind of success most Americans at the time didn't think the Irish were capable such successes, so they called it luck. Hence the term "Luck of the Irish".

"Luck" is only a simple word for all of the difficulties that the Irish have endured. Now to have luck means that nothing is too great to bear!

the luck of the irish is, in fact, bad luck. The term is ironic in nature. Anon 155461 is correct in that if it wasn't for the irish's bad luck, they'd have no luck. the irish are an unfortunate group in history, so the term is ironic and means bad luck.

I thought the luck of the Irish was a phrase of irony. This makes much more sense than the phrase referring to good luck because back when the Irish migrated to America they had a difficult time getting jobs. Even rather small jobs were hard to get because they were looked at as different with their accents.

I had always thought that the "Luck of the Irish" meant, without the bad luck you had no luck at all.

But over the years I have come to realize that the "Luck of the Irish" really means to be lucky at heart, from the support that is given through strong friend and family relations. It sees us through the good times and holds us together through the rough times. That truly is the "Pot of Gold" at the end of the rainbow.

Kelly V of Ontario Canada

I had always thought of it as meaning good luck. This article changed my mind though. You hear the word luck and your brain automatically wants to think good luck, like gold and riches.

The Irish definitely have a history filled with strife and while "bad" luck doesn't exactly fit, ill fortune does.