Irish American History
Some historians have noted that no other ethnic group suffered as much as the Irish did. While this may be open to some debate, their plight was sorrowful as they contracted disease, distress from poverty, discrimination and violence. The number of immigrants from Ireland lawfully admitted to the United States since 1820 is 4.8 million which has expanded to more than 42 million Irish Americans.
The Irish came to America for many different reasons. The main reasons were to escape economic hardship, famine, death by starvation, and religious persecution. For more than one hundred years, starting in the early 1820s, many left all they knew behind them. Sometimes they had to leave behind their families, friends, and loved ones. There were no festive bon voyage parties. Their departure was so traumatic that sometimes they would hold wakes, where loved ones would gather, to bid tearful farewells to those they knew they would never see again. Others brought their entire families with them, either all at once or one at a time as they were able to earn money and send for them.
When they landed on the shores of America, some continued their journey over land, while the majority settled in the cities where their ships docked. With very little money and few, if any skills, many resided in the poorest sections of New York City. Their life expectancy was a scant 40 years. Their death rate was 21% as opposed to the average 3% of other nationalities. The Irish accounted for almost half of the arrests in the mid 19th century, giving rise to a new nickname for the black mariahs - paddywagons. Violence in the streets of their neighborhoods were termed "donnybrooks", after the town in the country they left behind. They encountered widespread hatred and prejudice.
Newspaper cartoonists, most notably Thomas Nast, portrayed the Irish as backwards and drunken apes. Editorials crying for their deportation were written. American society viewed them as uneducated, dirty, with too many children and a foreign religion. Political groups were formed to rob them of their basic rights and deport them. Signs in store windows said they were not hiring the Irish. They formed New York City's first and most notorious street gangs. They performed backbreaking labor for little money and sent what they could back to Ireland, creating a chain of money that floated east across the Atlantic, unprecedented in American immigration history. They did not wait for America to give them their chance, they took it on their own terms. They dominated New York City politics, extending a helping hand to their own. They shed blood and sweat to build the Croton Aqueduct, Central Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Their sons, first generation Americans, would build the skyscrapers including the Empire State Building.
On a tragic September 11th morning in 2001 these Irish immigrant's grandchildren and great grandchildren would rush to lower Manhattan to rescue their neighbors with many perishing in their attempt. Many of these rescuers were NY city firemen, policemen, doctors, nurses, and clergymen. As before them thousands of their immigrant ancestors had served in the Civil war, and First and Second World Wars fighting for America. They now reside in all of our villages, towns, and cities in every state in the USA. Our latest census claims 42 million Americans with Irish heritage. This latest census states Irish Americans are better educated and more financially sound than the American population as a whole.
In spite of their persecution, the Irish have developed a tremendous fighting spirit. Today, the Irish are part of the spirit and voice of America. The Irish Americans have shown great patriotism, pride, passion, loyalty, and love for their heritage and are a wonderful example for all native USA groups.
