The Irish & Italians of New Orleans
- Guide Michelle
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Every March, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day (Mar. 17), St. Joseph's Day (Mar. 19) and Super Sunday, so it's a great time to visit New Orleans! Before I give you a few tips to enjoying the celebrations, here's a little history you might not have known...
BOOK A FOOD TOUR WITH ME IN THE GARDEN DISTRICT to visit the Irish Channel neighborhood, eat Italian-Creole dishes & learn more history about the immigrants who came to New Orleans & built the culture of our beautiful port city!
Italians in New Orleans
With the end of the Civil War, many freed men fled the South for better paying jobs and Louisiana planters and New Orleans' port was in dire need of labor.
Northern Italy enjoyed the fruits of modern industrialization, while southern Italy and Sicily suffered destitute conditions under the system of absentee landowners. This encouraged specifically Sicilians to board ships for the Palermo-New Orleans journey to find better opportunities. On March 17, 1866, the Louisiana Bureau of Immigration was formed and cheap tickets and 3 passages a month to New Orleans caused a boom.
Part of the lower French Quarter became nicknamed "Little Palermo" so many Italians settled the neighborhood by the early 1900s.
Historically many corner stores in New Orleans were owned by Italians. Progresso Foods originated as a New Orleans Italian-American business and the business established by the Vaccaro brothers later became Standard Fruit. The Italian fruit & vegetable vendors became a mainstay of the French Market. The Sicilian muffa bread birthed the muffaletta sandwich at Central Grocery & Deli, which was founded in 1906 by Salvatore Lupo and remains in the family.
Irish in New Orleans
The Irish fled British persecution to New Orleans at the end of the 1700s. They were attracted by the city's Catholic traditions and historically anti-British sentiments. Immigrants driven out of their homeland by the potato famine started arriving in significant numbers between the 1820s and 1840s. By 1850, 15% of the city’s population was Irish-born, making it one of the largest Irish populations in the U.S.
Irish immigrants often found cheap passage to New Orleans because cotton ships unloading in Liverpool, filled their holds with human ballast for the return trip.
Many Irish immigrants worked as manual laborers, constructing the New Basin Canal, where thousands died from yellow fever and cholera.
Unlike other U.S. cities where the Irish were often viewed only as poor, New Orleans had a mix of working-class and "lace curtain" (wealthier) Irish, who integrated into Creole society. Irish immigrants even influenced the local accent.
First-time visitors may expect the city dialect to affect a Southern drawl, but really it’s more like an accent out of Brooklyn where many Irish and other European immigrants also settled.
Celebrate St. Patrick's Day & St. Joseph's Day in New Orleans!
March 14, 2026: I live in the Irish Channel, a neighborhood along the river, adjacent to the Garden District. It hosts it's annual parade the Saturday before Mar 17th and Magazine St. is full of food, drinks & families trying to catch cabbages, carrots and potatoes from the floats. Be sure to swing by the Third St. block party between Magazine St and Constance St to get a frozen Irish Coffee and dance with the locals.
March 15, 2026: Aside from Mardi Gras Day, the most significant day for the Mardi Gras Indians is their Super Sunday. The New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council always has their Indian Sunday on the third Sunday of March, around St. Joseph's Day. Their festivities begin at noon in A.L. Davis Park (at Washington & LaSalle Streets) where the Mardi Gras Indians once again dress in their feathers and suits and take to the streets to meet other "gangs". Nobody is completely certain when the tradition of Mardi Gras Indians "masking" on St. Joseph's night began. However, there have been reports of Indians on St. Joseph's night dating back to before World War I. The custom seems to have come about simply because it was a good opportunity- with all of the Catholic Italians celebrating this holiday in the streets, the Indians were able to blend in and celebrate as well.
March 28, 2026: The Italian-American St. Joseph’s Parade in the French Quarter begins with food, wine, and Italian music followed by marchers dressed in black tuxedos handing out silk flowers and fava beans.
New Orleans Catholics celebrate St. Joseph’s Day by constructing elaborate altars to honor the relief St. Joseph provided during a famine in Sicily. St. Joseph altars, representing the Holy Trinity, are divided into three sections with a statue of St. Joseph at the head. Candles, figurines, flowers, medals, and other items are placed around the altar creating a beautiful, lush, and overflowing effect. Because the altars thank St. Joseph for relieving hunger, cookies, cakes, and breads, often in the form of shellfish, are common decorations for altars. Fava beans, or “lucky beans,” are particularly associated with St. Joseph because they sustained the Sicilians throughout famine- the dry beans are usually painted with the colors of the Italian flag and given to altar visitors, sometimes with Italian cookies to take home. Here's where to find them.
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