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How the Irish saved Thanksgiving

A rescue ship from Dublin helped the starving pilgrims

JOHN CUSACK,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, November 20, 2011, 7:22 AM

Updated Sunday, November 20, 2011, 7:42 AM

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"Freedom from Want" - painting of a Thanksgiving feast by Norman Rockwell

The first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in February 21 1621 when a band of starving pilgrims at Plymouth Rock were saved at the last minute by the arrival of a ship from Dublin, Ireland bearing food from there.

The Boston Post the largest circulation newspaper in the 1920 and 1930s discovered the earlier date for the Thanksgiving ritual and showed that the traditional date of the autumn of 1621 was actually incorrect.

According to the ‘Observant Citizen’ a columnist for the Boston Post the Pilgrims in the winter of their first year were starving and faced the end of the their project to colonize the new land when “a ship arrived from overseas bearing the much needed food.’

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The Observant Citizen, because of anti-Irish prejudice refused to name it as an Irish ship but it was actually The Lyon and “its provenance and that of the food was Dublin Ireland.”

It turned out that from records at the Massachusetts Historical Society that the wife of one of the prominent Plymouth brethren was the daughter of a Dublin merchant and that it was he who chartered the vessel, loaded it with food and dispatched it to Plymouth.

The Observant Citizen whoever he was, never admitted the Irish connection even though a number of Irish organizations challenged him on the issue.

Nonetheless the Massachusetts historical records revealed the tale giving the Irish a fair claim to saving Thanksgiving.

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21 Comments

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DrTrelawney | Nov 27, 2011, 09:24 AM EST

"Dublin, Ireland"? I think we all know where Dublin is, mate.

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DanSpence | Nov 26, 2011, 02:28 PM EST

Sad that irish central has become such a rag. Do a google search. Only reference to this story is here. The collection of pilgrim info has no mention the the ship the Lyon until March 1630. Do you folks just make this stuff up. I done here. There are much better sources.

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joycean | Nov 24, 2011, 09:52 AM EST

The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in December 1620; the ship from Dublin in February 1621, two months later. The first encounter with Native Americans occurred in March 1621. So the Native Americans did not provide the food in February 1621. The Piglims were typical of their time and frequently devoted time to thank God for their blessings, usually with days of prayer, not feasts. But the great feast that became the basis of the American Thankgiving celebration occurred in 1623. It was hosted by the Pilgrims, and the Native Americans, who had helped the colonists survive by teaching them how to grow and prepare the local foods,were their guests. It would be most accurate to say God provided the food: the colonists provided wild waterfowl and turkeys, the Native Americans brought 5 deer.

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KSERRAHN | Nov 23, 2011, 08:00 AM EST

MaryM232. If you don't like the Irish move across the Channel or North to Belfast .I'm sure They will gladly take you in.And the Irish don't need to ride the coat tails of any one. Every one else has been riding ours for centuries.:P

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warlocks | Nov 23, 2011, 01:56 AM EST

I wonder if Jesus or Julius Ceasar were in fact Irish lol who really knows ? i know for a Fact they were not Catholics lol

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MaryM232 | Nov 22, 2011, 04:59 PM EST

The foods provided for the first Thanksgiving,whether in Virginia or in Plimouth, was from the indigenous tribes. And the ship in question, as has been documented last year here, after this BS was spun here then, was not from any Irish person. Do you morons never realize that all you show is that the Irish never created anything worthwhile, and instead seek to ride on the coat tails of others to plump up their over indulged egos.

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joycean | Nov 22, 2011, 08:40 AM EST

Actually, the first official recorded Thanksgiving took place on December 4, 1619, at Berkley Plantation in Virginia, a year before the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. The first English settlement was at Jamestown,Virginia in 1607, 13 years before. Massachusetts only received credit because American history was first codified in New England after the Civil War at Harvard, and the South was in disrepute at the time. It wasn't until the 1960s that virginia's claim was accepted.

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conchobhar | Nov 22, 2011, 12:40 AM EST

George, Touchy, touchy. I don't claim expertise on any century, actually, but I do understand what I read. Look above, there's no mention of the Puritans who, by the way left England to found Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. The Thanksgiving(s) took place in 1621, in the Cape Cod Colony, founded by the Pilgrims. Now, if your position is that it wasn't "the Irish" who sent out the ship, but anti-Irish Englishmen, you may be right. The article states that it was the father of one of the Pilgrim women who commissioned the ship. Don't know what he thought of his daughter's choice of a mate, as the Pilgrims were a touch more tolerant than the Puritans, but it appears he was a generous sort. Watch that blood pressure.

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mcdolan | Nov 21, 2011, 03:18 AM EST

Wow, this has turned into a very hot topic.

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GeorgeDillon | Nov 21, 2011, 01:15 AM EST

conchobar: You're pretty ignorant on history, aren't you? Or maybe the 17th century isn't your area of expertise! Puritanism was at least 50 years old at the time the columnist is talking about. You think the tensions that created the English Civil War just appeared overnight? Have some sense. History didn't begin in America just because that's all you know. The English setters in Dublin in the early 17th century weren't Irish, didn't consider themselves Irish, and weren't considered Irish by the Irish themselves. Your ignorance on this is as stupid as saying that an Israeli settler on the West Bank is a Palestinian, because he's in Palestine. Really, you need to do a lot of reading on Irish history before you reappear here.

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seanomelbourne | Nov 20, 2011, 06:43 PM EST

Poor old George Dillon so blinded with hate he misses the point yet again God made the Irish to rule the world and then allowed them to invent whiskey to stop them.

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pilib04 | Nov 20, 2011, 04:30 PM EST

How convenient. Native Americans take it on the chin once again.

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conchobhar | Nov 20, 2011, 04:22 PM EST

George Dillon: Suggest you reread. The article states the ship was Irish, not the Pilgrims. Also, Pilgrims and Puritans are not synonymous; the Puritans came later. Hunter933: good one.

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Silling | Nov 20, 2011, 02:40 PM EST

Big Mac was the captain of that ship from Ireland.

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GeorgeDillon | Nov 20, 2011, 01:31 PM EST

This is all nonsense. Puritans in Dublin in 1621 were not Irish. They didn't consider themselves Irish, in fact they feared and hated the Irish. By then, and in the subsequent decades, they masscred thousands of Irish. Does nobody learn history any more? It's a bit like saying Custer was a Sioux because he happened to be in te territories of the Siouzx.

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