The Irish people set out for America to escape British mercantilism, economic recession, increasing violence of terrorists groups, and the Great Famine. "Most Irish people entering the United States between 1818-1870 came as refugees from disaster, people running away from misery and death rather than rushing toward freedom and opportunity."(McCaffrey 7) They saved there money over a long period of time only to act as ballast for empty merchant ships. Leaving their families behind they spent days on ships where food supplies ran low, disease was high and many questioned whether they made the correct decision as they watched those around them perish. They stepped off the ships, outcasts from the start, Catholics use to living in rural communities and lacking the knowledge and skill needed to succeed in this Protestant Anglo- Saxon society. The Irish people realized they were uneducated, unskilled, and lacked the common sense to survive in the city but they remained in the city where living conditions were unsuitable and disease was high brought on by cramped quarters and malnutrition. These poor living conditions and traveling jobs resulted in a breakdown of family relationships and further segregated them from their new found society. The Irish people left Ireland to find success in another land but were faced with new trials that took decades to overcome.
The Irish people's love for their families led them to America in search of opportunities that would better their lives and enable them to bring their entire family to America, a place free from the oppression, strife, and famine they faced daily in Ireland. All of these problems affected each person differently and gave them a reason to leave their land behind in order to search out new opportunities unaware of the new hardships they would come to face in this new land. America, however, provided the Irish people with a sense of hope they could not gain in the oppressed land they left behind. The reasons for emigration from Ireland varied for each person but all agreed that they were escaping a life destined for destruction. No matter what their reasons were many Irish came to America over the years in search of something they could not obtain at home, but were faced with many new trials that made them come to the realization that they would have to fight for success in this new land. The Protestant Anglo-Saxon society did not accept the Irish people from the start which made things very difficult when it came to finding living quarters, and jobs. Many Americans felt '"The Negro is black outside; the Irishman is black inside,"' claiming "they were part of a Papist conspiracy to bring down democratic institutions."(Katz, 77) The American people feared this mass Catholic migration of unskilled and uneducated Irish workers because they were scared of the effects the Irish would have on the economy and their way of life. The American's fear was surrounded by a loathing that sprung from the poor living conditions and the Irish's low social class. The Irish people realized they had to first overcome their lack of education and skill before they could fight for a higher social class. This fight for jobs and education led to years of strife, but the Irish people knew they had to take it one day at a time to succeed in a society in which they awarded the hardworking and courageous person.
The poor living conditions contributed greatly to the physical strife the Irish people first faced upon entering America. Cellar tenement's were unsuitable for any living creature but the Irish lived in these tenements where floors "ranged from ten to thirty feet below high-water mark! 'In sub-tidal basements nineteen families, 110 persons, live beneath the level of the sea. In very many cases the vaults of privies are situated on the same or a higher level, and their contents frequently ooze through walls into the occupied apartments beside them...These are the places in which we most frequently meet with typhoid fever and dysentery during the summer months.'"(Maguire, 225) The Irish people not only had to look for jobs but overcome these unsuitable conditions that led to weakness and death. Observing the conditions Irish immigrants lived under repulsed the American people, further isolating them from a society the Irish strived to be a part of. Instead of lives filled with happiness, the Irish lived in areas where sewage flowed through the streets, rats lived among them, and disease affected a significant number of people. Their children were left to perish in these conditions, denied the right to be a child, those that did survive only had days of hard labor and a life of misery to look forward to. Girls sold their bodies while boys resorted to thievery in order to get money to pay for food and housing.(McCaffrey, 67-68) The poverty and crime that grew with the new immigrants resulted in a greater hate for the Irish people labeling them a "social plague." These conditions affected the mental health of the Irish, destroying the beliefs and virtues they once held close to their hearts. "It is an accepted fact that to live for a long time deprived of pure air and sunlight will not only depress a man physically and mentally, but will actually demoralize him. The atmosphere is precisely adapted, through its properties and constituents, to the wants of the beings designed to breathe it...A man gradually loses ambition and hope; concern for the welfare of his family, by slow degrees, losses its hold upon him."(Maguire, 229) This demoralization of man contributed greatly to the lost sight of their hopes and dreams. Alcoholism was high during this time as people looked toward stimulants to help them cope with their inadequacies as a provider. This condition carried over to the children who learned to yearn for stimulants as a way to deal with problems; a stigmatism that will stay with the Irish people till this day. In order for the Irish people to better themselves they were forced to acquire unskilled labor and work their way up the food-chain, but this climb to success would be long and hard putting a great strain on the already struggling family life.
During this time of immigration the Irish people were forced into jobs that demanded many hours of hard physical labor with very little pay. The family structure slowly deteriorated as men obtained work on railroads, canals, and the military, while women worked long hours outside of the home. Since family presence was lacking many of these workers spent their hard earned salaries on alcohol with which they felt they could wash their sorrows away with each drink. This further escalated the alcoholism problem developing in the Urban Ghettos. Even though the Irish man felt a patriotism towards the United States when they fought in justifiable battles unlike the battles fought on their own home front, the family structure still deteriorated over time. The Father's absence and the mother's long working hours resulted in a lack of family structure. Parents left their children home alone to fend for themselves, continuing to live in poverty slowly wasting away over time. The Irish people were "Community-minded, gregarious by nature, fond of visiting and talking," and the absence of one or both of the parents left the children isolated from this social interaction and led to a loss of their beliefs and morals. Without interaction between other people children became socially dysfunctional while the adults felt a deep loneliness that they could not prevent, instead, they took it out on their families through violence brought on by alcoholism. Once the family structure deteriorated the Irish population started to wither away only to be saved in the end by this hard work that first brought on this internal deterioration.
The Irish people faced many troubles throughout the nineteenth century but these hardships and struggles gave them the strength they needed to succeed in America. America offered one thing that Ireland could not offer these people, hope for the opportunity to succeed in life. The military first contributed to many problems of the Irish people, deterioration of the family structure, but it also aided them in breaking the remaining ties to Irish nationalism, and gave the people a chance to receive an education. The Irish people blamed the British conquest of Ireland as a reason for their lack of respectability in the United States and felt that "a free Ireland would emancipate them from the humiliation of Anglo-Saxon contempt."(McCaffrey, 153) World War I, however, brought the Irish people respect from American society, their fierce conduct in many military operations allowed them to break from Ireland's nationalism and depend on themselves and their new home for success. World War II furthered this success by providing the Irish soldiers with an opportunity to seek education at the expense of the country they defended. The G. I. Bill sent many Irish-Americans through college giving them the education they needed to make a significant jump from a simple peasant to such positions as lawyers, doctors, and professors. This movement along with the new skills accumulated in the factory allowed the Irish-Americans to move out of the Ghettos and into respectable housing; leaving the disease and poverty behind them.
Even though they finally achieved an acceptance into the American society it was not without sacrifices. Many Irish people died over the years suffering from the disease and demoralization that came from poor living conditions. Many families were sacrificed in a fight to gain money and respect in the work force through initial work on railroads, canals and the military. They lost the beliefs and virtues they had brought with them from Ireland but soon adopted the belief system of the American people. In the end they made the greatest sacrifice a group of people can make, their identity as an Irish person. "Their commitment to Catholicism is ambiguous, and their experience in Catholic schools has deprived them of an Irish cultural heritage and awareness that might have withstood the collapse of the old neighborhoods. Many of them see no value in continuing to support a parochial school counterpart, both emphasizing Anglo-Saxon Protestant cultural values. They say 'If you want a first-rate WASP education, go to the WASPS and get it.'"(McCaffrey, 176) To the Irish people this sacrifice of their ethnicity was the last step needed to become a part of American society, they no longer look at themselves as nationalistic Irish Catholics, rather they have become American Roman Catholics, leaving the last of the old world behind them. The Irish people were a success story that other minority groups can look towards in order to achieve the same success, but they can also see the sacrifices one must make to achieve this success.
The Irish people came to America to escape the oppression, internal strife, and famine that had taken over Ireland. They were looking for a chance to be successful at life and America could offer them this hope. Little did the Irish people know that they braved rough seas and risked death to face new hardships and struggles. The Irish people living in ghettos were faced with malnutrition and disease brought on by poor living conditions. The Irish immigrant tried to escape these conditions by taking any job they could find, most of which required them to leave their family behind; this absence of parental figures resulted in the slow deterioration of the family structure. Over decades the Irish people finally obtained respect from the American people through their actions on the battlefield and the education they acquired with the G. I. Bill. In order to become a functioning part of this society the Irish people had to give up their own beliefs resulting in the loss of their identity. Everybody has to pay a price for the life they chose to live, the Irish struggled for decades to become an integral part of American society but lost their identity along the way; this loss of identity was the price the Irish people had to pay to escape the oppression, strife, and famine in Ireland and succeed in America.
Katz, Jacqueline H., and William L. Katz. Making Our Way. New York: Ethrac Publications, Inc., 1975.
Maguire, John. The Irish in America. New York: Arno Press, 1969.
McCaffrey, Lawrence J.. The Irish Diaspora in America. London: Indiana University Press, 1976.
Dole, David N., and Open D. Edwards, ed. America and Ireland 1776-1976: The American Identity and the Irish Connection. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976.
Edwards, Dudley, and Desmond Williams, ed. The Great Famine: Studies in Irish History 1845-52. New York: New York University Press, 1957.
O'Donovan, Jeremiah. Irish Immigration in the United States: Immigrant Interviews. New York: Arno Press, 1969.