SNIPPET: In Casalattico, Italy, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated with gusto and many inhabitants there speak English but with an Irish accent! Situated south of Rome in the Valle di Comino, the tiny mountainous village is rustic, harsh and rocky. It has a touch of Connemara, that rugged region in the west of Ireland. On March 17 each year, a special Mass is celebrated in the town in honor of the Irish patron saint. Green banners abound, along with real Shamrocks mailed from Ireland. Irish and Italian music fills the air. By evening there are Irish dancers. Many of the Italians who settled in Ireland came from sunlit Casalattico in a steady trickle. The exodus followed Italy's 1858 revolution, the "Risorgimento." With the victory of King Emmanual, many who fought for Garibaldi fled the country. Some of them, and others who left because of extreme poverty, traveled by foot through Italy into France. Many settled in England or Scotland, others in Ireland. Earlier, Irish missionaries, often called "warrior monks," had left their mark all over Europe, including Italy. Munster-born St. Cathal was the patron saint of the Italian army and revered in Taranto in southern Italy. Donogh O'Brien, the son of the 11th century High King Brian Boru joined the Roman monastery of Santo Stefano Rotondo, where he died. The Normans, who built castles in Sicily fifty years later, began cultural links between Italy and Ireland. The great Norman-Irish families such as the Fitzgeralds claimed Italian ancestors. The Geraldine can trace their heritage to the powerful Gheradini family of Florence. Followng the winning of Catholic emancipation in Ireland in 1829, there was a boom in church building. There was a demand for stone masons, church decorators and terrazzo tile workers. Italians with such skills had already been brought over to Ireland to ornament the graceful houses of Georgian Dublin and the country home of the English landlords. Alessandro Galilei, the architect who designed the facade of St. John Latern in Rome, built Castletown House in Co. Kildare for William Conolly. Other craftsmen decorated such mansions as Russborough, Maynooth College and Aras an Uachtarain, in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, which is the residence of the President of Ireland. The master craftsman Bartholomew Crammillion decorated Dublin's Rotunda Hospital. The lovely fleur-de-lys, cupids and angels still to be seen in the plasterwork of Georgian houses in Dublin are synonymous with such names as Francini and Bossi. At the time of Catholic emanicipation, Paul Cullen was Archbishopof Dublin. He had studied at the Irish College in Rome and acquired a taste for Roman-style churches, ornate decorating and Italian religious symbolism. The demand grew. Years after the Great Famine 1845-1849) many of the one million Irish who had emigrated worldwide in search of work and food sent money home to to have gravestones made and decorated in memory of family members who had died of starvation. Italians were quickly assimilated into the Irish culture. They were not taking work away from Irish. Their skills were needed. Both ethnic groups shared the same religion. The Italians brought gastronomic skills with them including the introduction of ice cream and hot chestnuts. Many of the Italians who came to Ireland, other than those in stone and terrazzo work, ended up selling fish and chips, not spaghetti. The first Italian immigrants in Ireland married with their own ethnic group. With time that gradually changed. Next to the Jewish community, the Italians form the oldest and most cohesive group of immigrants in Ireland. They advertise their nationality through their names which include Cipriani, Cafolla, Borza, Fusco, Marcari, De Vito, Cassoni. Carlo Bianconi ("Brian Cooney" to his neighbors in Thurles, Co. Tipperary) built and organized the first Irish transport system. He arrived in Ireland in 1804. One of the few Italians to venture into Irish politics, he helped his friend Daniel O'Connell in his fight for Catholic amancipation Giuseppe Nannetti was a Lord Mayor of Dublin (1906-08). During the 1930s, the Italian ship, "Amerigo Vespucci" visited Dublin and its crew enjoyed the hospitality of the Cafolla family, whose photo appears in the March-April 2001 issue of "Ireland of the Welcomes." Luigi Fulgoni developed a perfume called "Shamrock Leaves" circa 1960s; his next venture was the opening of Dublin's Unicorn Restaurant. Until 1969, there was a large Italian community in Northern Ireland, mainly in Belfast, where members attended St. Mary's Church in Chapel Lane. There was even an Italian school in the city. A close social life was maintained, and in the early years marriage among Italian families were encouraged. Always, the link with Italy was maintained. The financial and material support from the Italian-Irish at the time of Italy's disastrous flood in 1951 was an example of that unbroken link. In 1978, the Club Italiano centre in Tibradden on the outskirts of Dublin was opened. "Italia Stampa" is the official publication of the entire Italian-Irish community. Researchers may be interested in "Terra Straniera: The Story of the Italians in Ireland," author Una POWER. -- Excerpts, Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine