March is National Irish-American Month; that pride reaches its apex on March 17, when the Irish and Irish Wannabes celebrate St Patrick’s Day with leapin’ leprechauns, pots o’ gold, and plenty of snifters of Jameson whiskey and mugs of Guinness Stout raised on high — and quickly downed.

But the contributions of the Irish to this country are so much more than whiskey, stout, rainbows, and gnomes.

In the 19th and early part of the 20th Centuries, nearly 4.5 million Irish immigrated to America, escaping poverty and famine. The influx was seen by many Americans as a threat to American jobs, a drain on the social system, and the new citizens were ridiculed as lazy thieves: far from the truth, as applied to the majority of those starting a new life in this new land.

Irish immigrants were staunch supporters of the North in the Civil War, serving on the lines and leading troops into battle. History books are filled with the names of those of Irish descent who became political and military leaders.

The Irish laborer contributed to the building of America, tackling construction as skyscrapers began to scratch the skies of our larger cities, building railroads and highways that would carry travelers westward.

Households in the pre-automated age relied upon household help, and Irish women quickly became synonymous with capable assistance. Seamstresses from the Emerald Isle, skilled in lacemaking, were valued by women of style.

This pool of immigrants was no lazier, no more thieving, no more a threat to jobs than any settled American. Rather, the Irish added to a productive society, as our own history proves.

Seeking to escape large cities, where many had landed, they came to Newtown as factory workers and farmers, teachers and domestic workers, heavily influencing politics and religion in the town. By 1900, Newtown was 44 percent Irish. Their contributions were critical to the town’s growth in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, but they struggled for respect, enduring slights from Yankees threatened by a new culture. Still, they persevered, until so woven into the tapestry of the town that not an eyebrow raises at the lilt of an Irish surname.

Today, the same unfounded fears as those of Americans 150 years ago create a culture of distrust as a new generation of immigrants works to become valued in our society. We must look history square in the eye and admit that we are better off by overcoming nonsensical notions of superiority over those different from us.

The world is too small and our hearts too big to allow hate to supercede love that may benefit the majority.

The Newtown Historical Society will present “A Nation of Immigrants” with Kevin Jennings, president of the Tenement Museum in New York City, this Sunday, at the C.H. Booth Library, at 2 pm. This offering is an opportunity to consider our past, our present, and our future.

Who are we, really? We are a country built by and with immigrants, and we are proud to say so.