Gone to America
Throughout the Famine years, nearly a millionIrish arrived in the United States. Famine immigrants were the first bigwave of poor refugees ever to arrive in the U.S. and Americans were simplyoverwhelmed. Upon arrival in America, the Irish found the going to be quitetough. With no one to help them, they immediately settled into the lowestrung of society and waged a daily battle for survival.
The roughest welcome of all would be in Boston,Massachusetts, an Anglo-Saxon city with a population of about 115,000.It was a place run by descendants of English Puritans, men who could proudlyrecite their lineage back to 1620 and the Mayflower ship. Now, some twohundred thirty years later, their city was undergoing nothing short ofan unwanted "social revolution" as described by Ephraim Peabody,member of an old Yankee family. In 1847, the first big year of Famine emigration,the city was swamped with 37,000 Irish Catholics arriving by sea and land.
Proper Bostonians pointed and laughed at the firstIrish immigrants stepping off ships wearing clothes twenty years out offashion. They watched as the newly arrived Irishmen settled with theirfamilies into enclaves that became exclusively Irish near the Boston waterfrontalong Batterymarch and Broad Streets, then in the North End section andin East Boston. Irishmen took any unskilled jobs they could find such ascleaning yards and stables, unloading ships, and pushing carts.
And once again, they fell victim to unscrupulouslandlords. This time it was Boston landlords who sub-divided former Yankeedwellings into cheap housing, charging Irish families up to $1.50 a weekto live in a single nine-by-eleven foot room with no water, sanitation,ventilation or daylight.
In Boston, as well as other American cities inthe mid-1800s, there was no enforcement of sanitary regulations and nobuilding or fire safety codes. Landlords could do as they pleased. A singlefamily three-story house along the waterfront that once belonged to a prosperousYankee merchant could be divided-up room by room into housing for a hundredIrish, bringing a nice profit.
The overflow Irish would settle into the gardens,back yards and alleys surrounding the house, living in wooden shacks. Demandfor housing of any quality was extraordinary. People lived in musty cellarswith low ceilings that partially flooded with every tide. Old warehousesand other buildings within the Irish enclave were hastily converted intorooming houses using flimsy wooden partitions that provided no privacy.
A Boston Committee of Internal Health studyingthe situation described the resulting Irish slum as "a perfect hiveof human beings, without comforts and mostly without common necessaries;in many cases huddled together like brutes, without regard to age or sexor sense of decency. Under such circ*mstances self-respect, forethought,all the high and noble virtues soon die out, and sullen indifference anddespair or disorder, intemperance and utter degradation reign supreme."
The unsanitary conditions were breeding groundsfor disease, particularly cholera. Sixty percent of the Irish childrenborn in Boston during this period didn't live to see their sixth birthday.Adult Irish lived on average just six years after stepping off the boatonto American soil.
Those who were not ill were driven to despair.Rowdy behavior fueled by alcohol and boredom spilled out into the streetsof Boston and the city witnessed a staggering increase in crime, up to400 percent for such crimes as aggravated assault. Men and boys coopedup in tiny rooms and without employment or schooling got into serious trouble.An estimated 1500 children roamed the streets every day begging and makingmischief.
See AlsoAfter 168 Years, Potato Famine Mystery Solved | HISTORYGreat Famine - Relief Efforts, Ireland, 1845-1852The facts: What you need to know about famineThere were only a limited number of unskilledjobs available. Intense rivalry quickly developed between the Irish andworking class Bostonians over these jobs. In Ireland, a working man mightearn eight cents a day. In America, he could earn up to a dollar a day,a tremendous improvement. Bostonians feared being undercut by hungry Irishwilling to work for less than the going rate. Their resentment, combinedwith growing anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment among all classes inBoston led to 'No Irish Need Apply' signs being posted in shop windows,factory gates and workshop doors throughout the city.
Irish in New York
New York, three times the size of Boston, wasbetter able to absorb its incoming Irish. Throughout the Famine years,75 percent of the Irish coming to America landed in New York. In 1847,about 52,000 Irish arrived in the city which had a total population of372,000. The Irish were not the only big group of immigrants arriving.A substantial German population totaling over 53,000 also arrived in 1847.
In New York, the Irish did not face the degreeof prejudice found in Boston. Instead, they were confronted by shifty charactersand con artists. Confused Irish, fresh off the farm and suffering fromculture shock, were taken advantage of the moment they set foot on shore.
Immediately upon arrival in New York harbor, theywere met by Irishmen known as 'runners' speaking in Gaelic and promisingto 'help' their fellow countrymen. Many of the new arrivals, quite frightenedat the mere prospect of America, gladly accepted. Those who hesitated wereusually bullied into submission. The runner's first con was to suggesta good place to stay in New York; a boarding house operated by a friend,supposedly with good meals and comfortable rooms at very affordable rates,including free storage of any luggage.
The boarding houses were actually filthy hell-holesin lower Manhattan. Instead of comfortable rooms, the confused arrivalswere shoved into vermin-infested hovels with eight or ten other unfortunatesouls, at prices three or four times higher than what they had been told.They remained as 'boarders' until their money ran out at which time theirluggage was confiscated for back-rent and they were tossed out into thestreets, homeless and penniless.
During the entire Famine period, about 650,000Irish arrived in New York harbor. All incoming passenger ships to New Yorkhad to stop for medical inspection. Anyone with fever was removed to thequarantine station on Staten Island and the ship itself was quarantinedfor 30 days. But Staten Island was just five miles from Manhattan. Runnerswere so aggressive in pursuit of the Irish that they even rowed out toquarantined ships and sneaked into the hospitals on Staten Island despitethe risk of contracting typhus.
Another way to take advantage of the Irish wasto sell them phony railroad and boat tickets. Runners working with 'forwardingagents' sold bogus tickets that had pictures of trains or boats the illiterateimmigrants wished to board to leave Manhattan for other U.S. cities. Thetickets were either worthless, or if they were valid, had been sold atdouble the actual price or higher. On the boats, the immigrant were shovedinto jam-packed steerage sections, although they thought they had paidfor better accommodations. Sometimes, halfway to their destination, theywere told to pay more or risk being thrown overboard.
The penniless Irish who remained in Manhattanstayed crowded together close to the docks where they sought work as unskilleddock workers. They found cheap housing wherever they could, with many familiesliving in musty cellars. Abandoned houses near the waterfront that oncebelonged to wealthy merchants were converted into crowded tenements. Shoddywooded tenements also sprang up overnight in yards and back alleys to berented out room by room at high prices. Similar to Boston, New York experienceda high rate of infant mortality and a dramatic rise in crime as men andboys cooped-up in squalid shanties let off steam by drinking and gettingin fights.
Anti-Irish Sentiment
U.S. immigration records indicate that by 1850,the Irish made up 43 percent of the foreign-born population. Up to ninetypercent of the Irish arriving in America remained in cities. New York nowhad more Irish-born citizens than Dublin. Those who did not stay in NewYork or Boston traveled to places such as Albany, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh,Chicago, and out west to Butte, Montana, and San Francisco. Upon arrival,the Irishman and his family would usually go straight to the 'Irish quarter,'locate people from County Mayo, County Cork, or wherever they had comefrom, and settle in among them.
Unlike other nationalities that came to Americaseeking wide open spaces, the Irish chose to huddle in the cities partlybecause they were the poorest of all the immigrants arriving and partlyout of a desire to recreate the close-knit communities they had cherishedback in Ireland. Above all, the Irish loved each other's company, enjoyinga daily dose of gossip, conversation, poetry and story telling, music andsinging, and the ever-present jokes and puns.
But the daily pressures of living in America atthe bottom rung of society also brought out the worst in them. Back home,the Irish were known for their honesty, law-abiding manners, and chastity.In America, old social norms disintegrated and many of the Irish, bothmen and women, behaved wildly. In the hopeless slums of New York, prostitutionflourished and drunkenness occurred even among children.
Wherever they settled, the Irish kept to themselves to the exclusionof everyone else, and thus were slow to assimilate. Americans were thusslow to accept the Irish as equals, preferring instead to judge them bythe cartoon stereotypes of drunken, brawling Irishmen published in newspapersof the day. Irish immigrants were also derided in the press as 'aliens'who were mindlessly loyal to their Catholic leaders in place of any allegianceto America.
The sheer numbers of Irish pouring into the U.S. meant that Catholicismwas on the verge of becoming the single largest Christian denominationin America. Many American Protestants held the simplistic view that ifthe numbers of Roman Catholics were increasing then the power and influenceof the Papacy in America was also increasing, threatening America's politicalindependence. Fear of the Papacy thus became fear of the Irish and resultedin outright violence.
In Boston, a mob of Protestant workmen burned down a Catholic convent.Protestant mobs in Philadelphia rioted against Irish Catholics in 1844.The Irish in Philadelphia promptly gathered into mobs of their own andfought back, with the violence lasting over three days. Two Catholic churcheswere burned down along with hundreds of Irish homes and a dozen immigrantskilled. In New York, Archbishop John Hughes, on hearing of the Philadelphiaattacks, deployed armed Irishmen to protect his own churches. Then he paida visit to New York's mayor and warned him that if just one Catholic churchwas touched, the Irish would burn all of Manhattan to the ground. Othercities that experienced anti-Catholic violence included; Baltimore, St.Louis, New Orleans and Louisville, Kentucky.
Militant anti-Catholics formed a third political party nicknamed the'Know-Nothings' seeking to curtail Irish immigration and keep them frombecoming naturalized Americans in order to prevent them from ever gainingany political power. The movement was most successful in Massachusettswhich elected Know-Nothing candidates to every statewide office in 1854,including governor. Throughout America, anti-Irish sentiment was becomingfashionable. Newspaper advertisem*nts for jobs and housing in Boston, NewYork and other places now routinely ended with "Positively No IrishNeed Apply."
Photo Gallery During the Civil War, members of New York's 'Fighting 69th' attend a battlefield Mass. Members of the famous Irish Brigade of the ConfederateArmy. In Boston, Irish clam diggers pose on a wharf, 1882. In New York, officials investigate a squalid tenement, 1900. Former presidential candidate Al Smith (on right) with Franklin Roosevelt, the man who followed him as governor of NY, 1930. Triumphant visit of President Kennedy to Dublin, 1963. But American concerns over Irish immigration soon took a back seat tothe tremendous issue of slavery which was about to rip the young nationapart. For Irish Americans, the turning point oftheir early years in the U.S. would be the American Civil War. Over 140,000enlisted in the Union army while others in the South enrolled inthe Confederate ranks. Irish units, including the all-Irish 69th New YorkRegiment, participated in the monumental battles at Bull Run, Antietam,and Gettysburg, earning a reputation for dependability and bravery. AtFredericksburg, the 'Fighting 69th' repeatedly charged a well-entrenchedConfederate position on Marye's Heights to the astonishment of all whoobserved.
However, during the Civil War, Irish civilians were heavily involvedin the notorious New York draft riots in which African Americans were singledout for violence. Relations between Irish immigrants and African Americansin New York had never been good. From their earliest arrival in the U.S.the Irish had competed with freed slaves for the most menial jobs and cheapesthousing. Decades of frustration and pent-up emotions finally erupted onthe streets over three hot summer days in July 1863 resulting in numerousbeatings and 18 blacks murdered. Federal troops from Gettysburg had tobe called in to quell the violence. Hundreds of buildings, including ablack orphanage, were destroyed along with $5 million in property damage.
Rise of the Irish
Following the Civil War, Irish laborers once again provided the backbreakingwork needed for the enormous expansion of rapidly industrializing America.They ran factories, built railroads in the West, and worked in the minesof Pennsylvania, Virginia and Montana. They were carpenter's assistants,boat-builders, dock-hands, bartenders and waiters. In an era when therewere virtually no governmental constraints on American capitalism, theIrish organized the first trade unions and conducted strikes when necessaryfor higher wages, shorter hours, and safer working conditions.
Single Irish women found work as cooks and maidsin houses belonging to wealthy families on Beacon Hill in Boston and alongFifth Avenue in New York, and in most other big cities. Many lived insidethe homes in the servants' quarters and enjoyed a standard of living luxuriousby comparison to the life they had known in Ireland or in the tenements.These women were cheerful, kind-hearted, hard working and thrifty, alwaysmanaging to save a little money out of their salary for those back in Ireland.From 1850 to 1900 an estimated $260 million poured into Ireland from America,bringing over more family members and helping out those remaining behind.
The women also donated generously to their local Catholic parishes fornew parochial schools and the construction of stained-glass churches withmarble statues and altars. The beautiful cathedral-like buildings becamegreat sources of pride among the Irish, making the statement that Catholicshad 'arrived' in America. Catholic parishes became the center of familylife, providing free education, hospitals, sports and numerous social activities,recreating to some degree the close-knit villages the Irish had loved backhome while at the same time protecting them from unfriendly Americans.
Catholics in Ireland had endured centuries of discrimination at thehands of a dominant culture ruled by English and Anglo-Irish Protestants.They arrived in America only to find they were once again facing religiousdiscrimination by the dominant culture; this time American Protestants.Eventually the Irish discovered the path to changing things in their newhome lay in the local ballot box.
The large numbers of Irishmen now eligible to vote in cities such asNew York and Boston meant they could no longer be politically ignored.The sons and grandsons of Famine immigrants joined the Democratic Partyin droves, organized themselves by every ward and precinct into political'machines' then became candidates for office, first getting elected tocity councils, later to the mayor's office itself.
In Boston, newly elected Mayor James Michael Curley boldly announcedin 1914: "The day of the Puritan has passed; the Anglo-Saxon is ajoke; a new and better America is here." Curley dominated Boston politicsfor nearly forty years. He freely used patronage as a way to reward loyaltyand get Irish votes, filling various city departments with his supporters.The Irish delighted in taking civil service jobs with their steady paychecksand long-term security. In cities with big Irish populations, police andfire departments often became staffed by Famine descendants.
In New York, the political machine was known as Tammany Hall, a powerfulbut corrupt organization that traded favors and jobs for votes and money.Out of Manhattan's fourth ward emerged Al Smith, the grandson of Irishimmigrants, who rose from the tenements of the Lower East Side to seekthe American presidency. As governor of New York in the 1920s, Smith originatedground-breaking social reform programs that later became the model forFranklin Roosevelt's New Deal. But as the Democratic candidate for presidentin 1928, Smith was relentlessly bashed by anti-Catholic activists and wasresoundingly defeated, losing to incumbent President Herbert Hoover.
The most extraordinary Famine descendant was John Fitzgerald Kennedy,great-grandson of Patrick Kennedy, a farmer from County Wexford who hadleft Ireland in 1849. Although other Presidents, including Andrew Jacksonand Woodrow Wilson had Irish roots, John Kennedy became the first RomanCatholic. To millions of Irish Catholic Americans, Kennedy's election in1960 as the 35th President of the United States signaled an end to thecentury-long struggle for full acceptance in the U.S.
By the time of Kennedy's victory, descendants of the Famine immigrantswere steadily leaving the old Irish working-class neighborhoods of Boston,New York and other cities and settling into the new suburbs sprouting acrossAmerica. Irish Americans, three or four generations removed from theirFamine forebears, now preferred a more generic middle-class American lifestylecomplete with manicured lawns and backyard barbecues. Some of them evenconverted to Republicanism and wound up voting for another 'Irishman' namedRonald Reagan for president.
The Irish, the first big group of poor refugees ever to come to theUnited States, had born the brunt of American resentment and prevailed.They could now count on the fact that their children might be educatedat Harvard University or perhaps rise to a top position in any corporationor business, based on their talent and ability. And they had paved theway for the waves of immigrants from Europe and other places that followedin their footsteps.
Hard work and sheer determination had allowed the Irish in America toovercome countless obstacles and find success and happiness. But theircountry of origin remained a very sad place in the decades following theFamine.
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