The Luck of the Irish:

1. The Luck of the Irish: The Immigrants' Road to a New Life in America

2. Ethnic Immigrant Identities • Before 1860 • Most immigrants from northern/western Europe • England • Germany • Ireland • Scandinavia

3. Ethnic Immigrant Identities • 1890-1915 • 18 million immigrants • Most from southern/eastern Europe • Austria-Hungary • Italy • Russia • Most • Catholic • Jewish • By 1900, New York City • More Italians than any city in Italy except Rome • More Poles than any city in Poland except Warsaw • As many Irish as in Dublin • More Jews than any other city in the world

4. Immigration Patterns • To Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa • From the United Kingdom • To South America • From Italy, Portugal, and Spain • To the United States • From all parts of Europe

5. Reason for Emigrating • Migrant • Usually young men in teens and 20s • Did not emigrate as families • Work temporarily in US, then return to Europe • Came in early spring and worked until late fall • “Birds of passage" • Italians, Poles and Slavs

6. Reason for Emigrating • Permanent • Fled economic and political oppression • Came with families for permanent settlement • Irish, Jews, and Czechs

7. Ties • Migration across Atlantic strengthened family ties, didn’t destroy them • Core of immigrants’ transition to new world • Families • Neighborhoods with people from same home village • All major cities had Irish areas • "Irish Town“ • "Shanty Town”

8. Ties • Help provided • Information about city life • Temporary housing • Help in finding work • Loans • Multiple incomes from several family members • Childcare • Helped during illnesses, unemployment, injury or old age

9. Castle Garden • 1856-1892

10. Ellis Island • 1892-1924 • More than 12 million European immigrants • Examination room • Questioned by government officials • Examined by doctors

11. New York City • Many in the Lower East Side • In 1890, it had highest population density in world • 335,000 people per square mile • Business and recreation took place on streets • Middle-class New Yorkers • In offices and private homes

12. Restrictions • 1882—Chinese Exclusion Act • Barred entry of Chinese laborers • Set tough conditions for Chinese merchants to enter • 1907—Expatriation Act • US woman lost citizenship if she married foreign national • 1907—Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan • No restriction on Japanese immigration • In exchange for Japan's promise not to give passports to Japanese laborers for travel to continental US

13. Restrictions • 1917 Immigration Act • Immigration prohibited from Asia • Except from Japan and the Philippines • Excluded people likely to become problems

14. "Looking Backward“ • Puck, January 11, 1893

16. Irish Potato Famine, German crop failures and 1848 Revolutions Irish Potato Famine WWI and 1917 Immigration Act

17. The Irish

18. Anti-Catholic (anti-Irish) riots in Philadelphia in 1844

19. Irish Potato Famines • Early 1800s—Irish population was 8 million • Because potato became staple crop • 1845-1852 • Potato blight (fungus brought from US) • 1 million deaths • 2 million to US, Canada, and British Empire • Became 1/10th of America by 1850  • 1879-1880 • Cheap prices on American corn hurt market for potatoes • Evictions of tenant farmers

20. Punch, July 15, 1848

21. February 28, 1880 • American newspapers • Urged Americans to contribute to relief funds • Harper's Weekly, "America is not slow to respond to a call for bread.“ • Contribution • Over $200,000 • Over 3300 barrels of food and clothing

22. "American Gold. United States--working for it. Ireland--waiting for it.“ Puck May, 1882

23. Irish Migration • “American Wake” • Would never see Ireland again • But Irish future was more poverty, disease, and English oppression • America became their dream • Letters spoke of abundant land • Urged others to follow them • Read at social events to get young to join them • Free land did not lure them • Rejected land because land had rejected them • Left in droves on “Coffin Ships”

24. Arrival • Runners • Boarded ships grabbing immigrants and their bags • Forced immigrants to their favorite tenement house • Demanded large fee for their services • Poor immigrants didn’t have money to move on • Almshouses filled with these Irish immigrants • Begged on street

25. New Home • One immigrant wrote to family in Ireland, • "My master is a great tyrant, he treats me as badly as if I was a common Irishman… Our position in America is one of shame and poverty." • No group was considered lower in 1850s US than Irish

26. Anti-Irish/Anti-Catholic Sentiment • Forced to live in cellars and shanties • Conditions bred sickness and death • New York City • Approximately 80% of all infants born to Irish immigrants in New York City died • Five Points area

27. Anti-Irish/Anti-Catholic Sentiment • Brogue and dress provoked ridicule • Poverty and illiteracy provoked scorn • Popular children's game—”Break the Pope's Neck“ • “No Irish Need Apply”

28. Anti-Irish/Anti-Catholic Sentiment • Know-Nothing Party • Because of great Irish migration in mid-late 1840s • Supported by many native-born white workingmen • Republicans • Irish were core constituency of Democrats • Associated Irish with corrupt urban political machines, like New York's Tammany Hall

29. Anti-Irish/Anti-Catholic Sentiment • Harper's Weekly • Anti-Catholic fervor intense during 1870s • Irish Catholics more loyal to Pope than other Catholic immigrants • Vatican viewed as foreign power • Declaration of doctrine of Papal infallibility • Papal pronouncements against liberalism/modernism • Chicago Post • The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses...Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country."

30. Harper’s Weekly • March, 1873

31. “Look here, you, everybody else is quiet and peaceable, and you're all the time a-kicking up a row!'" • "Uncle Sam's Lodging House“ • Puck, June, 1882

32. Harper’s Weekly • March, 1888 "An' ye've lift the pirade, Tim?' "Oi have that." "Phwat fur?" "Oi've just been towld as Sint Patrick was a Frinchman, an' the idee of traipsin' roun' the sthraits an' carryin' the American flag fur a furriner is not to me taste, at all at all."

33. Heeler. "How much d'ye ax, For, ter taich me frind here ter read jist three wurrads?" Professor. "Why only three words?" Heeler. "Well, ye see, Sor, if they're goin' to wurruk this Owstralinn ballit reform racket, I want me frind here to be dead sure of three wurruds, Dem., Rep., and Prohib. It's meself as kin attind to the rest av the taichin'." • Harper’s Weekly • February, 1890

34. “The Mortar of Assimilation--And the One Element that Won't Mix” • Puck June, 1889

35. Life, December, 1892, through January, 1893 • “The Salons of New York”

36. No Irish Need Apply • I'm a decent boy just landed • From the town of Ballyfad • I want a situation, yes, • And want it very bad

37. I have seen employment advertised • "It's just the thing," says I • But the dirty spalpeen ended with • “No Irish Need Apply.”

38. "Whoa," says I, “but that's an insult • But to get the place I'll try.” • So I went to see the blackguard • With his “No Irish Need Apply”

39. Some do think it a misfortune • To be christened Pat or Dan • But to me it is an honor • To be born an Irishman

40. Well, I started out to find the house, • I got it mighty soon • There I found the old chap seated • He was reading the Tribune

41. I told him what I came for • When he in a rage did fly • "No!" he says, “You are a Paddy • And no Irish need apply”

42. Well, I gets my dander rising • And I'd like to black his eye • To tell an Irish gentleman • “No Irish Need Apply”

43. Some do think it a misfortune • To be christened Pat or Dan • But to me it is an honor • To be born an Irishman

44. Well, I couldn't stand it longer • So a hold of him I took • And I gave him such a welting • As he'd get at Donnybrook

45. He hollered, “Milia murther” • And to get away did try • And swore he'd never write again • “No Irish Need Apply”

46. Well, he made a big apology • I bid him then goodbye • Saying, “When next you want a beating • Write ‘No Irish Need Apply’.”

47. Some do think it a misfortune • To be christened Pat or Dan • But to me it is an honor • To be born an Irishman

48. Irish-American Solidarity • Economic • Collective action key to improving their economic position and resisting discrimination • No emphasizing individual upward mobility • Many Irish men found work in egalitarian situations • Labor gangs • Construction crews • Longshoremen • Government employment (especially as police officers) • Insult/Intimidation often met with violence

49. Irish-American Solidarity • Social • Helped each other survive city life • Prayed together • Drank together • "The Irish have become more Americanized than the Americans." • Political • Supported Democratic party from 1840s on

50. Employment Options • Irish arrived at time of need for America • Country was growing • Family income which hovered around $600/year • Prejudice against blacks high • Blacks hated Irish • Irish hated Blacks • Needed men to build bridges, canals and railroads • Hard, dangerous work • Common expression among railroad workers was “an Irishman is buried under every tie”