The Irish population was very much included in the American Revolutionary War. They fought in all positions: commanders, regimental soldiers, naval officers, etc. A vast immigration of the Irish occurred in the early year of the 18th century. A popular port of entry was in Pennsylvania, and settlements branched out in the thirteen colonies from there.
In 1778, Captain James McGee, commander of the Sendee of the Commonwealth, was shipwrecked in Massachusetts Bay, and seventy-two of his men were lost. The survivors were very kindly treated by the inhabitants of Plymouth, who also " decently buried all the bodies that were recovered." Captain James McGee was admitted a member of the Irish Charitable Society of Boston in 1791 and served as its president in 1810. Captain Bernard McGee was admitted at the same time.
One of the earliest prizes carried into the United States was a British ship, which Captain O'Brien captured and brought to Marblehead.
Several Irish officers of minor grades were on board the other ships of the new Navy, some of whom later rose to independent commands.
In the quarrel between America and France, or the Directory, one of the severest actions fought was that of The Constellation, commanded by Commodore Truxton, with the French frigate Insurgente. In this action, Midshipmen Porter and James McDonough distinguished themselves. The former was of Irish descent, the latter of Irish birth. Mr. McDonough had his foot shot off and was obliged to retire from the navy, but his younger brother, Thomas, who entered the same year, more than justified the expectations of the friends of that family. Their father, Major McDonough, had settled at Newcastle, Delaware, shortly before the birth of Thomas, who used to say of himself that " his keel was laid in Ireland, but he was launched in America." Major McDonough died in 1796.
Mr. Mathew Mease, Purser in the Bon Homme Richard with the famous Scottish born, John Paul Jones, was courageous. In the conflict with the Serapis frigate commanded by John Paul Jones, he begged to be allowed to direct the quarter-deck guns, which he did very gallantly until he was dangerously wounded in the head, and Jones was obliged to fill his place. Mease was most respectably connected in Philadelphia, where he died in 1787.
Source: A History of Irish Settlers in North America by Thomas D’Archy McGee (1851).