No Irish Need Apply

In researching a book about the Irish slaves (yes, there were Irish slaves,) I found a great deal of information about those Irish who chose to come to America in the 1800's, and who also did not find it to be a heaven on earth. my own Irish ancestors settled in Virginia and then South Carolina in the 1700's, and as far as I know did not suffer these hardships, but by the 1800's, things were generally hard for the Irish in America.

During the 1800's, when the potato famine was taking place in Ireland, many Irish men, women, and children immigrated to America. They were not welcomed, in most places, with open arms.

The Irish tended to cling to the large cities; for one thing, they were too poor to venture far from the waterfronts, and for another, they wanted to remain together, and it was easier to find other Irish folk in the big cities. But the cities did not want them, and only the poorest, least sanitary, areas were available to them.

Resentment was particularly strong in Boston, Massachusetts, which was originally settled by English Puritans, and thus had inherited both the English prejudice against the Irish and the Pretestand prejudice against Catholics, which most of the Irish were.

By necessity, the Irish banded together into areas around the waterfront and in the lowest areas of the city, living crowded together in tiny rooms and unsanitary houses and taking the lowest-paying and most humiliating jobs: unloading ships, pushing carts, sweeping streets, cleaning out stables.

At this time, conditions for the Irish were so horrible in Boston that 60% of the children died before age six, and the average life expentancy for an Irish immigrant from the time he or she stepped off the ship was six years.

Poverty and lack of employment are a volatile mix, and the Irish made trouble in the streets. Crime increased in Boston by 400% soon after the Irish began arriving. Children roamed the streets begging.

The working-class Bostonians were not about to give up jobs to the Irish. "No Irish Need Apply" signs showed up in windows everywhere. Bars and lodging houses boasted signs proclaiming, "No Irish Allowed," and "No Irish Will Be Served."

In New York, the Irish did not face the prejudice they faced in Boston, but their lack of knowledge of the country led them to be conned and swindled at every turn, overcharged for inadequate housing, underpaid for work, and taken advantage of in every possible way.

Everywhere in print, the Irish were depicted as violent, alcoholic, shiftless bums.

But the Irish did not take oppression meekly. They fought for their rights, and often Irish gangs were known for their brutality. They did whatever they thought they had to do to protect their own.

The Civil War began to change things for the Irish in the cities. Though they rioted in New York when the draft was instated and the first draft results showed that nearly every name was Irish, many of the men went voluntarily to fight in "Irish brigades," and defended their new country with pride and bravery.

That, and the need for hard labor on the railroads and canals, helped the Irish find a place for themselves. Politics and the Unions helped them find more of a place. In Pennsylvania, the Molly McGuires fought for the rights of miners. In Boston, Irish organized on the docks. Everywhere, Irish stood up for their rights, no matter how bad their circumstances.

By 1870, St. Patrick's Day parades began to give Irish Americans a way to show their pride that did not involve gangs and violence. They also began to change the image of the Irish in American cities. They were still known to love a drink, but now, they were known as honest, hard workers, too. This did not handle immediately, though: During the first St. patrick's Day parade in New York, the Irish bands played songs derogatory to the English, and fights broke out that had to be quelled by the police, who by that time were mostly Irish themselves. The next day, the parade was banned.

Still, times were changing. And the Irish became, over time, such a part of this country that Presidents Wilson, Buchanon, McKinley, Grant, Cleveland, and Taft all sprang from Irish blood, as well as the most famous Irish American of them all, John F. Kennedy. In American letters, Irish blood supplied F. Scott Fitzgerald and Eugene O'Neill; in sports, Connie Mack and Gentleman Jim Tunney, and many others shared Irish ancestry.

To be sure, every immigrant group in America: Asian, Jewish, Black, Hispanic- all met with prejudice and abuse. But for some reason, when this fact is acknowledged, the Irish are seldom mentioned. But let it not be forgotten, that those of us such as myself with Irish forefathers also have our tales of slavery, prejudice, and despair overcome to lend strength to our pride in those who came before and metal to our backbones.