Graduate Jobs In Ireland

The Irish Immigration Struggle In America

The knowledge that I had before beginning this paper was very limited. Most of what I knew had been gleaned from Saint Patrick's Day. I knew that the Irish drank beer, liked to have big parties and believed in leprechauns. I learned a little more through movies like "The Gangs of New York". The picture is a brutal retelling of the immigration movement and its effect on what was known as "The Five Points." The story line followed the struggle of one particular boy whose father, a catholic priest, was killed by the "natives". These were people born in the United States. They felt very resentful of the Irish invaders, and they had massive gang fights to determine the rule of the city. The movie did provide some knowledge of that particular area. However it did not explain why the Irish were coming to the States in such large numbers. In short, my knowledge of the Irish was nave and very limited.

Ireland in Retrospect

The history of Ireland is long and complicated. It is important to understand their past to some degree in order to explain their eventual emigration to the United States. From the Viking invasions for the hundred years spanning 800A.D. to 900A.D. that not only decimated the Irish countryside but also their regional dynasties and monastic cultures, to the Cambro-Norman mercenaries nicknamed Strongbow that invaded in 1169A.D., and continued to devastate Ireland for seven hundred years, and finally the Rule of the English crown, which began to assert itself after the English Reformation, the Irish have lived in a constant state of turmoil. (Gleeson, 2001, p. 12)

Under English rule Ireland lost many of their political and religious rights. They were charged outrageous sums to live on the land that had once belonged to them and their ancestors, sometimes dating back thousands of years to the early conquest. Many Irish men and women were already economically spent by the time the famine hit in the eighteen forties. They were already on the verge of catastrophe politically, religiously and economically when they were struck a massive blow from which most could not recover. (Stanage, 2008, p. 23)

The Famine

During the infamous Irish famine, which is sometimes called the potato famine, thousands of Irish men women and children suffered and died. Their potato crops were hit hard by a fungus that wiped out entire fields of potato. This was the livelihood of the average Irish citizen of the day. People were literally dying in the streets.

Because wealthy landowners could not bleed their tenants any more economically, they felt that it would be better to evict them.

Many Irish felt that they had been forced to leave their homes. Because the decision to leave was purely economic and brought on by the lack of government intervention they felt they had no choice. Most of the millions who left the island in this period were economic migrants. (Gleeson, 2001, p. 8)

Landowners often sent the starving Irish men, women and children to the different ports throughout the United States that were accepting immigrants, including Boston, New York, and Quebec. When offered the choice, most Irish chose the port of New York.

The Price They Paid

Irish emigrants were not the largest part of the forty million people who crossed the Atlantic for the New World in the nineteenth century but the loss to their country was significant. Nearly a million people had already left before 1845, and the country sent out a fourth of those remaining which made up approximately two million emigrants. Eight million natives of the old country of Ireland were cut in half. Tens of thousands more followed every year, until it became a ritual mourning for the departed in the "American wake" just as it was when the deceased were buried. (Gleeson, 2001, p. 8) An example of a town that was wiped from the map, literally, is the town of Ballykilcline, a community of small farmers and laborers that lived on an estate in the Irish midlands. The town was emptied by death caused by the famine and the diseases that arose from the filthy living conditions that emanate from extreme poverty and emigration in the winter and spring of 1847-1848(Gleeson, 2001, p. 10)

A few years after the towns inhabitants arrived in the New World, its name had been wiped from the map of Ireland. There are few traces of its existence. Some of the oldest residents still remember. This incident was not isolated. This occurred in many towns across Ireland. The few remaining elders carried the stories till their death, but from there the history is lost.

New Hope

The Irish entered the United States with the hopes that they would be protected by the laws of this country and be privy to the same rights enjoyed by citizens already living here. "When we respectively departed from our native homes for these states, we did not believe that we should enjoy less of these personal blessings than the freemen of this country" (Freemen, 1798, p.1). However they found that they were disillusioned to an extent. Although there was more hope of success in the New World than there was in the current state of Ireland, they still had many adversities they faced. The Natives were not necessarily accepting of these poor, beleaguered immigrants coming into their states and taking their jobs. They saw the Irish as less than human.

"The Plea of Erin", or "The case of the natives of Ireland in the United States", was a statement written by the "Freemen", and addressed to Congress in the year 1798. The paper protested the Alien and Sedition Act. These acts declared that in a time of war aliens could be seized and held if they were perceived as a threat. The Freeman felt that if a native had a grievance towards them, that this may give them an opening to have them arrested.

This did happen because of these laws to some extent. The resentment at that time towards the immigrants by the natives and it offered an excuse for numerous injustices to occur towards Irish inhabitants. "The Plea of Erin" was a step in the right direction for the Irish when it came to standing up for their rights and proclaiming their dissatisfaction with their mistreatment in the United States at that time. They were gradually gaining more control socially and politically, however, their acceptance in many cases came at a significant price. In many instances the cost was the lives of their people, as they fought within their own communities, and in the civil war to gain a foothold as Americans; their blood was spilled throughout the new country they hoped to eventually call their own. They would join the war effort for just a meal in many instances. Life in particular in the East in areas such as New York and Boston did not offer many opportunities for the Irish immigrants who settled there.

The Five Points

Most of the Irish emigrants who ended up in the Five Points were from Lansdowne. "Lansdowne tenants were so desperately poor that they would often nail shut their cabins during the summer and walk a hundred miles or more through the counties of Cork, Limerick, or Tipperary in search of work. "In autumn they go to the low country during the harvest", noted a Kerry resident ", and their wives then often shut up their houses and go begging with their families until their husbands come home with their earnings" in time to harvest their own potatoes"(Anbinder, 2002, p. 21).

Immigrants usually had to sleep in tenements that leaked sewage. The Five Points were built on top of an old sewage dump. If a clean place to sleep could be found there would often be dozens of people in a room with some straw.

The immigrants from this area of Ireland were singled out from the rest as being the most dejected and decrepit looking of those coming off the boats in New York. The Newspapers were so disgusted by the look of the people coming off the coffin ships that they wrote numerous articles about the neglectful conditions under which they suffered. Eventually the Lord who controlled the Lansdowne ships was forced to increase rations and monetary portions to his previous tenants in order to save face. However, by that time, many had lost their lives to the arduous journey they endured. (Anbinder, 2002, p. 23)

The emigrants who came from Lansdowne tended to be older and have more children. They were the worst off of the emigrants in the Five Points.

Lansdowne immigrants lived in overcrowded tenements because they could not afford better. . Male Lansdowne immigrants generally held the lowest-paying and least desirable jobs in the city and they tended to be more likely to work in menial labor. They also held a lower status and not likely to work as artisans or own their own business.

The Five points was riddled with crime and filth. The Irish Catholics were rejected by the Natives of the city, and there were constant brawls. Because of the economic status of the majority of the residents, crime was rampant. The gangs that controlled the area of the Bowery and lower Manhattan were very political. These were not the politicians of today. They fought with their fists, knives and guns. Tammany Hall was the Democratic Party, and the Know-Nothing Party consisted of the Natives Americans. They were brutal and enforced their party by thievery and murder in order to gain not only political control of the city of New York, but also demographic control (Anbinder, 2002, p. 27)

Assimilation at a Price

Africans Americans and the Irish were suffering under the same discrimination at this time in. They lived in the same neighborhoods and worked the same jobs. Early on in immigration history, the economically deprived Irish and African Americans were part of the same class and competed for employment opportunities. The term mulatto appears for the first time the eighteen-fifty census due primarily to Irish and African Americans inter-marriage. "My master is a great tyrant; he treats me like a common Irishman" (McDonald, 2007, p. 12) The Irish and blacks who were free were seen as related by the Nativists. They performed the same tasks in society. Many believed that if the races were to mix, it would be the Irish and the African Americans. However the Irish chose to embrace whiteness, and became the part of society that was oppressive to the African American race. They felt they were choosing freedom over slavery.Many slave owners in the south were Irish and African-Americans to this day many times will not lay claim to any Irish heritage even when they have Irish surnames which they often associate with slavery. One sentence paragraph?

"The significant Irish population in the Southern states of the U.S. was reflected in the fact that a substantial number of slave owners were Irish. Many African-Americans to this day remain reluctant to claim any Irish heritage even if they have archetypal Irish surnames because those names are often considered to be tainted by the association with slavery". (Stanage, 2008, p. 1) "To them, it is a question of whether the name was given in the context of slavery or in the context of ancestors coming from Ireland. But I think if you're Irish you should embrace that Irishness whatever the circumstances and whatever other ethnicities you have". (Stanage, 2008, p. 1).

However, the Irish themselves have been slaves. During the rule of Oliver Cromwell's in the 17th century, there were as many as 130, 000 Irish people who were slaves. Many were even sent to the New World where they continued to be property for an American owner.

There is no doubt that there is bad blood between the Irish and African Americans to some degree. There were incidents like the New York City draft riots during the Civil War and the "white flight" from inner cities a century later. The Irish dominated city police departments and many were bigoted which led to bad blood. The Irish wanted to associate with what they felt was the dominant society. Many thought that if they were able to supplicate the African American people, they themselves would be able to more easily assimilate into the Americas. To a great degree they were correct.

There was plenty of Irish and African-American history where there was a great deal of cooperation. Irish and black Americans workers, worked together to gain rights in the labor movement, and many fought alongside the African Americans to ensure equal rights.

Progression of a People

According to the 2000 U.S. census, some 33 million Americans claim Irish descent. Irish Americans constitute the third largest ethnic group in the United States, after British Americans and German Americans (McCaffrey, 2007, p. 9). This is a far cry from the early 18th and 19th century statistics. At that time the Irish were just coming in to the United States. Acceptance was a constant battle for their people in this country. They faced rejection at every turn, whether for religious, cultural, political or ethnic reasons.

In the eighteen hundreds Irish immigrants struggled to gain the skills that would propel them to a higher level within society. There were many formidable obstacles that they had to face. They were both technologically and agriculturally unskilled and had a difficult time finding jobs in the major cities in which they settled. They were discriminated against in every area whether it was housing, education or jobs.

There were anti-immigrant groups, such as the Know-Nothings who were determined to ensure that they did not succeed in their endeavors to better themselves within this country. The Know-Nothings thought the Catholic religion was subversive and stereotyped the Irish as uncivilized (paraphrase). Because they were unskilled and generally extremely impoverished they would live in areas that were crowded and ethnic. They generally worked in jobs as menial laborers, or domestic help.

The Irish people held strong to their faith, despite the opposition. They would send their children to Catholic schools, and it was these actions that allowed them to overcome the adversity they faced. The ability to hold on to their culture, faith and belief in education allowed them to break the hold that poverty held over them.

Many Irish Americans gained valuable skills due to their ability to gain education through their religious connection. In the late 19th century the skilled working class became much more prosperous. Some even achieved professional status. Women in particular became nurses and teachers. According to statistics taken directly from the United States Census Bureau, the Irish have assimilated very well into American society. Here are statistics taken directly from the United States Census Bureau:

Irish American Statistics

Population 25 years and over20, 172, 572182, 211, 639

High school graduate or higher18, 120, 095146, 496, 014

Bachelor's degree or higher6, 079, 01044, 462, 605

Civilian veterans (civilian population 18 years and over)3, 291, 11326, 403, 703

Disability status (population 5 years and over)4, 683, 70349, 746, 248

Foreign born269, 83131, 107, 889

Male, Now married, except separated (population 15 years and over)6, 365, 59860, 720, 716

Female, Now married, except separated (population 15 years and over)7, 017, 84059, 510, 557

Speak a language other than English at home (population 5 years and over)866, 54846, 951, 595

Economic Characteristics - Selected Population GroupTotal Population

In labor force (population 16 years and over)16, 471, 509138, 820, 935

Mean travel time to work in minutes (workers 16 years and over)2526

Median household income in 1999 (dollars)48, 94741, 994

Median family income in 1999 (dollars)58, 59450, 046

Per capita income in 1999 (dollars)25, 05321, 587

Families below poverty level375, 5206, 620, 945

Individuals below poverty level2, 040, 03333, 899, 812

Irish Americans never forgot where they came from. They were among the first American ethnic group to help liberate their native country. They contributed financially and politically to secure the independence of Ireland from the United Kingdom. They helped create the Irish Free State in 1921 and finally the 1949 founding of Ireland. (McCaffrey, 2007, p. 9)

Numerous Irish American men fought in World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) and used benefits given to them by the GI Bill of Rights further their education at colleges, universities, and postgraduate or professional schools. They often made the move from working-class neighborhoods to middle-class suburbs.

John F. Kennedy was the first Irish American Catholic ever elected President of the United States in 1960, although there were at least twenty-three presidents before him, including George Washington, who could claim some Irish blood. However, the prominence of Kennedy's position and his likeability factor and opened wide the door for the Irish to hold the highest position in the land, forever changing the face of Americans. Because of this, many Irish Americans finally felt like they belonged.

Facts Concerning Equity

Almost all of Irish Americans can claim a high school diploma; as of the year 2000 they have a ninety-one percent success rate (McCaffrey, 2007, p. 10). That is significantly higher than most of the nation. Keep the same paragraph with next sentenceThere are about 36 million people in the US who claim to be Irish. About thirty-one percent or people in the United States who claim an Irish heritage and are over twenty-five have a bachelors degree or higher. (McCaffrey, 2007, p. 10)

The Irish are also about three percent lower on the poverty scale than the national average. The average income is around fifty-thousand per year for households who claim Irish heritage. They get jobs in a wide variety of professions with about forty percent in professional and management occupations(McCaffrey, 2007, p. 9).They also have a very high rate of home ownership at about seventy-two percent in the United States, or about five points above the median rate.

The Irish have assimilated very smoothly into American society. Much of this educational equity is due to their earlier links to the Catholic Church. They made sure early on that their children were educated in their own schools. This led to a native born generation of children who had the potential to work in professions where education was valued.

There easy transition into American society likely had much to do with their skin color. Once they made enough money to dress like the general population, the only thing that would have distinguished them was a name. This was a roadblock, but not one that was impossible to overcome.

Annotated Bibliography

Almeida, L. D. (2001). Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995. Bloomington, Indiana: University Press. http://www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/Details.aspx?ProductId=66568&Terms=The+Great+Famine+and+the+Irish+Diaspora+in+America&ReturnLabel=lnkSearchResults&ReturnPath=/Search/SearchResults.aspx

The text identifies two particular swarms of Catholic Irish immigrants including one in the 1950s and one in the 1980s. They were the first immigrants to leave a free Ireland. This book studies the changing ethnic identity and the current state of Irish immigration and the relationship between Ireland and the United States. It is an intensive study of Irish immigration into the United States that was written using surveys, specifically with the nineteen eighties group, who dubbed themselves "the New Irish". The study introduces the supposition that the void that has widened between the early Irish settlers and the "New Irish" may be more than generational.

Anbinder, T. (2002). From Famine to Five Points. The American Historical Review, 102, Retrieved 03/23/2008, from http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/107.2/ah0202000351.html#FOOT10

This journal tells the tale of the Irish and their first immigration movement into the United States and especially the state of New York. It speaks of an area of New York known as "the Five Point." This was known as the slum of the city. There was great political and religious upheaval in this area in particular. Most of the Irish in the Five Points came from a town in Ireland called Kerry. There was much strife for the immigrants living in this area as they were not readily accepted by the overall population known as the natives.

Carle Asbury, F. (1999-2004). Gangs of New York. Herbertasbury.com, Retrieved 4/03/2008, from http://herbertasbury.com/gangsofnewyork/

Freeman's Journal (1798). Early American Imprint 1: Evans, 1639-1800. Retrieved March 16, 2008, from: http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/. The Plea of Erin. Retrieved March 16, 2008.

The Plea of Erin, or The case of the natives of Ireland in the United States was written in 1775 and brought before Congress. The name "Erin" was often used English derivative of Irish Gaelic irinn, the Irish word for "Ireland". The Irish were asking the fraternal address of the first congress of the Americas in the year 1775, to consider their mistreatment by the government of the United States as well as their contribution through their efforts to the growth of the country.

Gleeson, D. T. (2001). The Irish in the south, 1815-1877. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. http://www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/

This is a detailed study of Irish immigration in the nineteenth-century South where they migrated and struggled to make a home in a new land where they were viewed as foreigners. They were set apart by language, high rates of illiteracy, and their own self-identification. They were considered to some extent "The forgotten people". This book tells of the struggles they face on early America with job discrimination and political turmoil. It also speaks of the religious and political implications of their immersion in the United States of the day.

Gribben, A. (1999). The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America. Amherst University of Massachusetts Press. http://www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/Details.aspx

This is a comprehensive collection of essays that reveals the effects of the Irish famine on both sides of the Atlantic ranging from the loss of life to the loss of music among the Irish peasantry. This book provides us with the broadest understanding of this event. It details some of the struggles the Irish Americans faced in terms of how the famine affected them on a personal level. The general public was becoming more politically aware of the desperate hopelessness of the Irish situation, and the British government was no longer able to ignore this. This potato famine was the cause of a great degree of the immigration that occurred between the years of 1845-1850. The text tells the story of the Irish plight from a personal viewpoint.

"Infoplease Article." Fact Monster. 2000-2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster.04 Apr. 2008 .

This site contains information from the United States Census Bureau. It gives information on population and educational statistics of Irish Americans including a breakdown of job related activities and income levels in comparison to the median.

McCaffrey, L. J. "Irish Americans", Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007. http://encarta.msn.com 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

This article gives a brief introduction on the history of Ireland as well as the political and social implications of their emigration to the United States. It discusses the effect of discrimination on their Catholic beliefs and the way that affected their economics at that time. It goes on to talk about their eventual success in the United States through their service in the war and the G.I. Bill that paid for many to further their education.

McDonald, , A. (2007). How the Irish Became White. UUJEC, Retrieved 04/01/2008, from http://www.pitt.edu/~hirtle/uujec/white.html

This article discusses the implications of Irish Americans coming to the United States and feeling the need to integrate into society through the agreement with the slavery movement. The paper holds the idea that Irish immigrants became the oppressors in a society that would not accept them hoping to gain their acceptance through these actions.

Mulrooney, M. M. (2003). Fleeing the Famine: North America and Irish Refuges, 1845-1851. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. http://www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/Details.aspx

Details how the Irish Potato Famine caused the migration of more than two million people seeking refuge in the United States and Canada. This collection helps readers to compare the experience of transatlantic Famine refugees. This text examines the Irish famine in terms of who is to blame for the continuation of the suffering, as well as the eventual overall impact this event continues to have on the Irish population. It asks questions such as who is to blame for the suffering of the Irish, and did it have to happen at all. The plight is looked at from a scholarly and historical viewpoint.

Scally, R. J. (1995). The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine, and Emigration. New York: Oxford University Press. http://www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/Details.aspx?ProductId=53323&Terms=&ReturnLabel=lnkSearchResults&ReturnPath=/Search/SearchResults.aspx

Examines the social and economic climate in the years leading up to the Great Hunger and mass emigration reduced the Irish population by half. The author illustrates the struggles of the Irish peasant population as the famine swept the nation. This story focuses on a town in Ireland that lost a large majority of its population due to the migration of its people. Ballykilcline was a town rooted in history. Hundreds of families had lived there for centuries. This story details the loss of their roots and the eventual removal of their town from the map of Ireland. This was only one of many such stories.

Stanage, N. (2008). Echo Focus: Hidden histories. The Irish Echo: Online, 81 No. 11, Retrieved 03/16/2008, from http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=17800

This text tells of the immigration that began before the potato famine. It talks of the Irish in the southern states, and how many were slave-owners. The text links the struggles between Irish Americans and African Americans, as well as acknowledging that the Irish themselves perpetrated the misdeed of slavery. It explains the link that some African Americans have to Irish Americans through blood, and how there has been an attempt to embrace this history, although not always successfully.