Barack Obama

From an old whaling town.

Some history, Irish.

snip

Immigration to New Bedford[edit]


North Congregational Church, Purchase Street, 1906
Until 1800, New Bedford and its surrounding communities were, by and large, populated by Protestants of English, Scottish, and Welsh origin. During the first half of the 19th century, however, a large wave of Irish people came to Massachusetts.

In 1818, Irish immigrants established the Catholic mission that built St. Mary's Church. Later in that century, immigrants from Portugal and its dependent territories of the Azores, Cape Verde and Madeira began arriving in New Bedford and the surrounding area, largely because of the whaling industry. As the Portuguese community began to increase, they established the first Portuguese parish in the city, St. John the Baptist (1871). The French (chiefly French-Canadian) also secured a foothold in New Bedford at about the same time, and they built the Church of the Sacred Heart in 1877.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bedford,_Massachusetts

Thanks Irish~