Constitution Week commemorates America’s most important document and is celebrated annually during the week of September 17-23.

I’ve read several articles about Irish-American signers of the Declaration of Independence but not so much about Irish-Americans who signed the U.S. Constitution. Eleven years had passed between the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the signing of the Constitution on 17 Sept 1787. There was some overlap in the names; for example, Benjamin Franklin signed both, as did George Read, son of John Read, a wealthy emigrant from Dublin.

Here’s some trivia about Constitution signers, courtesy of The Founders – the 39 stories behind the U.S. Constitution:

• George Read (of Delaware) signed the Constitution twice, once for himself and once for his friend John Dickinson who had to leave the convention early due to exhaustion.
• Robert Morris of Pennsylvania spent a million dollars of his own money to finance the battle of Yorktown. He ended up in “Prune Street” debtor’s prison for 3 ½ years when he couldn’t pay the taxes on his vast land holdings.
• William Patterson of New Jersey wanted the Senators to be elected by the people, but the Constitution stipulated they were to be selected by the state legislatures. He is known as “The Father of the United States Senate.” He introduced the “New Jersey Plan,” which favored the small states.
• David Brearley suggested they redo all state boundaries making the thirteen states equal in size.
• Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, at 26 year old, was the youngest delegate.
• Roger Sherman from Connecticut was known as “Mr. Compromise.” He supported the Connecticut Compromise which initially settled the big states/little states argument over representation.
• Daniel Carroll of Maryland and Thomas Fitzsimons of Pennsylvania were the only two Catholic delegates at the Convention.
• John Rutledge of South Carolina named his tenth child “States” Rutledge. He helped pass the idea of the supremacy of federal laws over state laws in matters affecting the nation as a whole.
• Gunning Bedford of Delaware was the largest man at the Convention.
• Charles Pinckney of South Carolina was another young delegate at 29, but his age didn’t keep him from speaking up.  He made over 100 speeches and presented a Pinckney Plan to other delegates which included a single national leader called a President and a two-House Congress.