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Many Irish settlers moved to America during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, and particularly during the Irish potato famine which forced large numbers of poor Irish to leave their land. Their descendants often retain a strong sense of their Irish heritage.
Irish Americans are found throughout the United States, although they are generally associated with the metropolitan areas of New York, Boston, and Chicago, where most new arrivals of the 1800s and early 1900s settled. As a percentage of the population, the most Irish American town in the United States is Milton, Massachusetts, with 43% of its residents being of Irish descent.
The Irish American way of life has been chronicled in the modern media, most notably in movies such as The Brothers McMullen and on television in series such as Ryan's Hope.