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The largest concentration of Goonans on the planet is a toss up between the United States of America and Australia. Both countries have huge populations and it appears they began developing simultaneously between the 1850s through the early 1900s.

I don't have any accurate numbers figured out, but I can tell you for every Goonan I have found in the United States, I have found one in Australia. And, it appears there are a few who are quite active in the politics of Australia. Some of the Australian Goonans have distant connections with the United States Goonans four or five generations ago in Ireland. A couple of families I have corresponded with had mentioned some of their grandparents who had siblings who went to Australia and New Zealand to farm. I think we were all cousins at some point back there in Ireland.

There are also Goonans living in Canada, England, and Scotland that I know of, and one family reported they had heard some Goonans may possibly be living in Israel, and the West Indies. I still have to check that possibility out.

The occupations vary from student to mayor, we are doing it all I think. Soldiers, sailors, farmers, ranchers, miners, public service, police, fire and corrections, politics, engineers, doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers, lawyers, artists,  musicians, writers, and in the Lord's service as priest, brothers and nuns. Compared to our ancestors who left Ireland, we have it all. I often wonder if they would comprehend the changes they started. Their dreams of a better life for themselves and their children have really happened considering what they left behind.

It looks like the first Goonans to arrive in the United States were domestics, laborers and mill workers. At least in my family that was the case. After settling in New Hampshire my great-grandfather worked as a groundskeeper at the Van Cortlandt family estate in Croton, New York. He got his job there through his sister who was the family cook there for 42 years - most of her life. She was there for the last real Van Cortland, Annie Van Cortland. The sons and daughters of this generation went on to higher education and the current generation is living a pretty good life with kids doing graduated work in colleges and universities all over the place.

You have to appreciate what that first generation had to deal with when they first left Ireland. Though by the time our generations of Goonans left Ireland the ride over wasn't too bad. The first waves of immigrants had a really bad time. A quarter of them died during the trip due to disease and conditions on the ships. In most of the United States there were almost the equivalent of laws against being a Catholic, let alone being an Irish Catholic. Particularly in New England. You could say they were treated like crap, in layman's terms. You couldn't own property. You had to live in "zone". You got the worst jobs and the lowest pay. You were thought to be a drunkard, irresponsible, ignorant and uncivilized. This was the historically typical response everywhere thanks to British propaganda over the course of a thousand years of persecution and rule. Not exactly a warm welcome to the people (speaking of the Irish in general) who would eventually have a major hand in shaping world history a few generations later.

I think they were treated better in Australia myself. They were sort of invited there. Many got free or cheap transportation, though not the best. They got deals and land grants to farm and ranch, though they didn't get a lot of help doing it and many had a really rough time of it. But, they prospered.

We forget sometimes that our grandfathers and grandmothers lived in rough times and had hard lives. It's no wonder they had short lives. The average life spans of people in the lower tiers of the economic ladder in the late 1800s and early 1900s was around 50 years if you were in good health. However, in spite of all this adversity and hardship our Clan has survived and is prospering.