Irish Americans

I

Introduction

Irish Americans, residents of the United States who trace their ancestry to Ireland. According to the 2000 U.S. census, some 33 million Americans claim Irish descent. Irish Americans constitute the third largest ethnic group in the United States, after British Americans and German Americans.

II

History

Religious and cultural differences have divided Irish Americans into two distinct groups, Protestants and Catholics (see Protestantism; Roman Catholic Church). The English conquest of Ireland began in the Middle Ages. Beginning in the late 16th century, these invaders were Protestants, primarily Anglicans from England and Presbyterians from Scotland (see Presbyterianism). These two groups, mostly the Presbyterians, supplied the vast majority of the approximately 500,000 Irish immigrants to North America before 1820. Presbyterians came from Ulster, a province now divided between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Many achieved success in business and commerce, but most settled in rural areas as farmers, especially in western Pennsylvania and along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Presbyterians quickly melded into the American cultural mainstream. To distinguish their identity from that of the despised Irish Catholics, they defined themselves as Scots-Irish.

Irish Catholics arrived in the United States later than the Scots-Irish and in greater numbers, and they tended to maintain their cultural heritage. As a result, the term Irish Americans traditionally has referred mainly to the Irish Catholic community in the United States. About three-fourths of the roughly five million Irish immigrants who entered the country after 1820 belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.

Most of the Catholic immigrants were impoverished people from rural Ireland. Irish immigration to the United States increased greatly during the Irish Potato Famine, a catastrophic failure of Ireland’s staple food crop. The famine resulted in disease and starvation that killed more than 1 million people in Ireland and forced another 1.5 million to emigrate to North America, Great Britain, and Australia. After the famine, emigration continued to function as an economic and social safety valve for Irish society, enabling people who could not earn a living in Ireland to seek their fortunes abroad.

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Throughout the remainder of the 1800s, technologically and agriculturally unskilled Irish immigrants settled in large cities on the eastern seaboard of the United States, especially New York City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Boston, Massachusetts. Irish Americans were frequently discriminated against in housing, jobs, and education. Anti-immigrant groups, such as the Know-Nothings, regarded Catholicism as an alien and subversive religion and culture. They stereotyped the Irish as “uncivilized.” Unskilled and impoverished, Irish Americans usually lived in crowded ethnic ghettos and worked in the least desirable occupations. Irish American men were usually manual laborers, while Irish American women often found employment as domestic servants.

Despite the hostility their religion often attracted, Irish Americans regarded their Catholic faith as the key component of their cultural and ethnic identity. Catholicism provided a bridge between the Old World and the New World, comforting Irish immigrants emotionally and spiritually in an often hostile, new environment. Catholic values and institutions, particularly schools, did much to overcome the poverty and hardship that afflicted early Irish American society.

During the late 19th century, many Irish Americans entered the ranks of the skilled working class and became more prosperous. A significant number of Irish American women achieved professional status as nurses and teachers. Taking advantage of thriving economies in the Midwest and West, Irish Americans in these areas experienced more success than their counterparts in the East.

Irish Americans were the first American ethnic group to become involved in the liberation of their native country. Irish American financial contributions, personal participation, and political influence aided movements to secure Ireland’s independence from the United Kingdom. Irish Americans played an important part in the creation of the Irish Free State in 1921 and the subsequent founding of Ireland in 1949.

Millions of Irish-Catholic American servicemen fought in World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945). Following World War II, many used benefits conferred by the GI Bill of Rights to enter colleges and universities, as well as postgraduate and professional schools. Many Irish Americans moved from working-class urban neighborhoods to middle-class suburbs. When John F. Kennedy, an Irish American Catholic, was elected President of the United States in 1960, many Irish Americans finally felt like first-class citizens.

III

Influence on American Culture

Denied access to business and commercial opportunities, ambitious Irish Catholics often pursued careers in the church, politics, and labor unions. Many served the Catholic Church as priests, nuns, and brothers. By the end of the 19th century, Irish Americans were the dominant force in the American Catholic Church. Unlike many other Catholic immigrant groups, Irish Americans quickly adjusted to the American political system and figured prominently in the urban wing of the Democratic Party. Irish American political leaders offered a vision of society that was more community-oriented than the economic individualism favored by most British Americans. Irish American influence led the Democratic Party to address such social problems as poverty and inadequate housing.

Other outlets for Irish talents included sports, the entertainment industry, and literature. During the late 19th century, Irish Americans were especially successful in baseball and boxing. Colorful Irish American baseball players, such as “Orator” Jim O’Rourke of the Boston Red Stockings (now the Atlanta Braves), became very popular during the early years of professional baseball. Between 1880 and 1897, three Irish American boxers—Paddy Ryan, John L. Sullivan, and James J. Corbett—succeeded one another as world heavyweight champions.

Irish American contributions to popular culture often reflected the struggles and triumphs of Irish Catholics in the United States. The patriotic songs of Irish American playwright and composer George M. Cohan were popular during the World Wars. Films featuring Irish American movie stars such as Spencer Tracy, Pat O’Brien, and Bing Crosby as sympathetic priests helped make Catholicism seem less alien and threatening to non-Catholics in the 1930s and 1940s.

Journalists, such as Boston’s John Boyle O’Reilly and especially Chicago’s Finley Peter Dunne, initiated a distinctive Irish American literature in the last quarter of the 19th century. This literary tradition, often focusing on the themes of family and faith, eventually included many important Irish American writers, such as Eugene O’Neill, James T. Farrell, Edwin O’Connor, William Kennedy, Elizabeth Cullinan, and Thomas Flanagan.

IV

Contemporary Issues

Among present-day Irish Americans, middle-class suburban life has diminished traditional values, such as religious allegiance and loyalty to the Democratic Party. The fading of Catholicism as the core ingredient in Irish American identity has stimulated a search for other aspects of Irish culture. Large enrollments in Irish history and literature courses and enthusiastic audiences at Irish plays and concerts reflect the intense interest of Irish Americans in their heritage. Fiction and nonfiction about Ireland and Irish Americans have become very popular with American readers.

Saint Patrick’s Day, the traditional feast day of Ireland’s patron saint observed on March 17, has evolved into an annual celebration of Irish American ethnic identity. On Saint Patrick’s Day, Irish American communities in many cities sponsor parades. Celebrants often dress in green, symbolic of the lush, green landscape of Ireland.

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