Irish Immigrants in the Northeast, Research Paper Example

Introduction

During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, 250,000 to 500,000 Irish people who were extremely devoted to their Protestant religion, settled in the New England part of the United States (“Irish-American” 3). The other Irish groups of people who settled in this part of America during these centuries were southern Irish Anglicans and Quakers, in which more than three fourths of these people were Scotch-Irish Prebysterians from Ulster (“Irish-American” 3).

Northern New England in the United States is also known as the “Coastal New England” (“New England” 30). The coastline parts of New England are more urbanized as compared to the Western parts of New England (“New England” 30). Therefore, it is quite believed that Irish immigrants in early times in the northern parts of New England strived hard to market their businesses to merchants in urban areas, thereby, equipping them more with higher profits. These immigrants are also believed to have developed more social habits than Irish immigrants in other parts of New England due to extensive interactions with various types of people which urban areas can only bring.

The urbanized characteristic of the northern New England’s area materializes basically because of numerous historical events, which included among them the settling of Irish immigrants or explorers in the region (“New England” 30). The original explorers mostly immigrated in the Massachusetts Bay coastline (“New England” 30). Therefore, numerous explorers or immigrants of Irish descent can also be found along that coastline. One of the most prominent people in America whose ancestors were Irish immigrants that settled mostly in Massachusetts were the members of the Kennedy clan. This clan is made up mostly of American politicians that included former US president John Kennedy.

In 1931, half of the 1,230,000 Irish immigrants to Canada settled in the eastern province of Canada called Ontario (“Irish-Canadian” 1). The other provinces in the eastern part of Canada where numerous people of Irish descent are also residing are in Quebec and Nova Scotia (“Irish-Canadian” 1). People with Irish descent in Quebec make up 406,085 numbers of the population, while people in Nova Scotia belonging to this descent make up 193,365 numbers of the population (“Irish-Canadian” 1).

The Irish people established both residences in the urban and country areas of Quebec (“Irish-Canadian” 13). People of Irish descent build most of their residences in the province in Pointe-Saint Charles, Griffintown and Goose Village Montreal (“Irish-Canadian” 14). Their own churches, schools and hospitals are established through the aid given by Quebec’s Catholic Church (“Irish-Canadian” 14).

Starting in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Irish immigration to Ontario has become rampant (“Irish-Canadian” 18). They initially migrated to the province in small quantities and as missionaries, soldiers, geographers and fur trappers in order to be of service to New France (“Irish-Canadian” 18).

United States Irish Immigration History

Most of the Irish immigrants in the United States during the colonial times belongs to the families from the Ulster province, and were later known as “Scotch-Irish” (“Irish-American” 2). They belong to the ancestry of Scottish and English tenant farmers who established a new life in Ireland in the 17^th century Plantation Of Ulster (“Irish-American” 2). Between 1720 and 1775, a quarter of a million Irish immigrants from Ulster established their new residences in America (“Irish-American” 2).

Irish Catholics have been establishing their new residences in America in significant numbers prior to the American Revolution (“Irish-American” 4). Large numbers of Irish Catholics established permanent residences in the New England areas of America, particularly in Boston and New York (“Irish-American” 4).

The years that followed after 1860, Irish Catholics continued to immigrate extensively in America, mostly due to family purposes (“Irish-American” 10). They usually settle in urbanized towns and cities where Irish immigration has already significantly boomed (“Irish-American” 10).

The New England areas also witnessed massive immigration of Irish priests in the 1970s, particularly Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Capuchins (“Irish-American” 21). One of the most significant Irish immigration events in the New England areas is the following (“Irish-American” 21):

“when new dioceses were erected in 1808 the first bishop of New York was an Irishman in recognition of the contribution of the early Irish clergy” (“Irish-American” 21).

The most prominent conflicts involving religion among Irish immigrants in New England are the following (“Irish-American” 22):

In Boston 1810-40 there had been serious tensions between the bishop and the laity who wanted to control the local parishes. By 1845 the Catholic population in Boston had increased to 30,000 from around 5,000 thousand in 1825, due to the influx of Irish immigrants. With the appointment of John B. Fitzpatrick as bishop in 1845 tensions subsided as the increasingly Irish Catholic community grew to support Fitzpatrick’s assertion of the bishop’s control of parish government” (“Irish-American” 22).

“In New York, Archbishop John Hughes(1797–1864), an Irish immigrant himself, was deeply involved in ‘the Irish question’ – Irish independence from British rule. Hughes supported Daniel O’ Connell’s Catholic emancipation movement in Ireland, but rejected such radical and violent societies as the Young Irelanders and the National Brotherhood. Hughes also disapproved of American Irish radical fringe groups, urging immigrants to assimilate themselves into American life while remaining patriotic to Ireland ‘only individually.’ In Hughes’s view, a large-scale movement to form Irish settlements in the western United States was too isolationist and ultimately detrimental to immigrants’ success in the New World” (“Irish-American” 23).

Irish Jesuits established a network of colleges in major cities, including Boston College, Fordham, and Georgetown. Boston College was established in 1863 to appeal to urban Irish Catholics. It offered a rather limited intellectual curriculum since the Jesuits of the late 19th century were wary of the radically changing world and limited intellectual study to Thomistic philosophy. The priests prioritized spiritual and sacramental activities over intellectual pursuits. One consequence was that Harvard Law School would not admit Boston College graduates to its law school. Jesuit leadership with modern scholarship became their hallmark in the 20th century” (“Irish-American” 25).

Irish immigrants in eastern Canada are also well known for running successful farming households (Hedican 1). In fact, these households are used as references for these immigrants’ family planning systems (Hedican 1). Ontario’s chief emigration agent declared that three quarters of the immigrants in 1847 in the province were Irish (Tucker 537) (Hedican 1). He states that some of the other immigrants have died unfortunately at sea travels due to tragedies (Hedican 1).

On the other hand, there are still also significant numbers of Irish immigrants who were able to earn a living and enough money for livelihood to enable them to buy land which they can use for the family farm they run in Montreal and other eastern provinces and cities in Canada (Hedican 1). This proves to be true in this statement Akenson releases (Hedican 1):

“The Irish migrant to Ontario arrived in terrible physical condition, but his bodily emaciation should not be equated with cultural impoverishment or with technological ignorance … in Ontario he passed through the cities on the way to settling successfully in the commercial farm economy of small towns and isolated farmsteads.” (Hedican 1).

Irish immigration to Canada within 1825 to 1845 reached a high number of 40,977 in 1831, many of whom resided in eastern Canada, particularly in the Ontario province (Hedican 1). The census department of Canada reports the following information relevant to Irish immigrants in eastern Canada: 66.1 percent of people who are descendants of early Irish immigrants reside in Ontario and in Ontario province (Hedican 1). Descendants of Irish immigrants in Canada choose to mostly settle in the Ottawa Valley, particularly, Renfrew County, in the Ontario province in eastern Canada (Hedican 1).

Among the daunting tasks of Irish farmers residing in the Ottawa Valley in Renfrew County are the following: clearing fields, planting crops, and constructing buildings to be used for shelters and safe keeping of equipments in preparation of winter (Hedican 1). The farmers are extensively all over the places in the valley (Hedican 1). Some of these farmers congregated themselves in community parishes and abundant farms (Hedican 1). These Irish farmers give tremendous importance on being able to help out one another whenever they can or being cooperative (Hedican 1).

Irish-American Literature of The Late 1800’s

One of the leading authors that concentrate on writing about Irish-American literature from the 1800s is Charles Fanning (“Irish Voices” 1).  Fanning writes about the literary works of the 1800’s which stereotypically depict Irish immigrants to America as drinkers, brawlers, and liars who did not have much education (“Irish Voices” 2). These immigrants came by millions of bulks to America in the 1800’s (“Irish Voices” 2).

The Irish immigrants were stereotyped as trouble makers and subhuman (“Irish Voices”  2). Fanning wrote that it was clearly depicted how the Irish-American literature of the 1800’s narrates the Irish immigrants’ religion, Catholic, as being constantly isolated during the 1800’s  (“Irish Voices”  2).

Fanning depicted realistically how the literary authors described the Irish immigrants in the 1800s as “people who endured grinding poverty in inner-city tenements, did backbreaking labor, and encountered discrimination in jobs and housing” (“Irish Voices” 2). Fanning himself described these immigrants based on their ordeals in the country as” pioneers of the American ghetto” (“Irish Voices” 3). Fanning concentrated mostly in retelling the fictional literary works of this genre (“Irish Voices” 6).

Another prominent literary figure in the Irish-American genre is a journalist of Irish descent, Finley Peter Dunne (“Irish Voices” 9). Dunne is the brain of the creation of a fictional Irish-American bartender named, Mr. Dooley character who exhibits his funny side when expressing his views on politics and life (“Irish Voices” 9). Dunne became prominent in his career writing about the famous character, Mr. Dooley, in his syndicated newspaper columns during the latter part of 1890s (“Irish Voices” 9). However, Fanning was most intrigued in the contents of the pre-syndication columns that Dunne writes in the Chicago Evening Post (“Irish Voices” 9).

In Dunne’s columns, he tells of Mr. Dooley’s adventures of storytelling that he gets involved with when talking with his Irish neighbors in his residence of Chicago’s near South side area (“Irish Voices” 10).  Fanning uncovered these literary works of Dunne’s numbering to about 300 that had thought to be already lost (“Irish Voices” 10).  Fanning gives this comment on Dunne’s works (“Irish Voices” 10):

“as full a picture as you’re ever going to get of what it was like to be a working-class Irish immigrant in an American city in the 19th century” (“Irish Voices” 10).

Fanning further praised Dunne’s expertise and professionalism by giving the following statement (“Irish Voices” 12): “Dunne is the first Irish-American voice of genius,” says Fanning. “He thinks enough of these people–factory workers, laborers–to dignify their lives and to turn them into real literature. And he does it in an Irish brogue.” (“Irish Voices” 12).

Fanning comments that Dunne turns people’s mockery of Irish immigrants into praises of humor through releasing this statement: “He does for the Irish-American voice what Mark Twain does when he lets Huck Finn tell his own story [in his own dialect]: he legitimizes it. The best of Dunne’s pieces are really eloquent and beautiful” (“Irish Voices” 13).

During the decade of 1980’s, Fanning did an extensive research on the Irish-American literature of the 1800’s that have long been forgotten (“Irish Voices” 14).  He went through massive library collections in order to be able to find every literary works he could ever find belonging to this genre (“Irish Voices” 14).  The libraries where he conducted his research work included the following: Harvard’s Widener Library, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the Newberry Library in Chicago (“Irish Voices” 14).

According to Fanning, the literature he studies indicates that during the years prior to the 1840’s, Irish immigrants settled in America by choice (“Irish Voices” 16). These literary works also depict the fact that despite the prejudices Irish immigrants faced in America, they were able to obtain sufficient education and were able to well blend in at the American society (“Irish Voices” 16).

Fanning made this statement regarding the ordeals and triumphs of the Irish immigrants in America that he discovered through reading through Irish American literary works (“Irish Voices” 17):

“That early stage of writing has lots of satire and parody. The early generations of immigrants were confident enough to laugh at themselves, at the view that other Americans held of them, and at America.” (“Irish Voices” 17)

Irish American authors produced literary works in the 1800’s which dealt with “rags to riches stories”, romantic stories narrated in novels that tell the home sickness of such authors for their native lands, and books suggesting ways on how to better get along with other people in America, and encouraging Irish immigrants to stay loyal to the Catholic religion (“Irish Voices” 19). All of the aspects in these works are transparently fictional, except for one aspect, setting (“Irish Voices” 20). Fanning gives this statement about this observation as follows (“Irish Voices” 20):

“This literature tells you what the inside of a tenement flat looked like and how people lived day to day. Even in the didactic stuff you get a vivid depiction of daily life and working conditions. You also get plenty of illustrations of anti-Catholic prejudice” (“Irish Voices” 20).

Most of the literary works Fanning gathered from the Irish American 1800’s genre came from the book entitled, “The Exiles of Erin: Nineteenth-Century Irish-American Fiction” (“Irish Voices” 21). This book was published in 1987, and was awarded the American Book Award by the Before Columbus Foundation under the category of “Outstanding Contribution To American Literature” (“Irish Voices” 21).

During the late 1800’s writers of Irish-American literary works that include Dunne, started again to write fictional stories based on the realities that Irish-American immigrants face in their daily lives (“Irish Voices” 22). However, during the early 1900’s, Fanning found out through research that not much literary works of this genre are published anymore (“Irish Voices” 22).

The reasons why this literary works faded into popularity during the early 1900’s are the following (“Irish Voices” 23):

• Anti-immigrant goals (“Irish Voices” 23)
• World War I Conflicts (“Irish Voices” 23)

Very limited Irish immigrants were able to settle in the United States in the beginning parts of the 1920’s after immigration regulations during this time became stringent (“Irish Voices” 23). In turn, this event has limited the proliferation of Irish-American literature even more (“Irish Voices” 23).

Charles Fanning also edited famous Irish-American author, John V. Kelleher’s book entitled, “John V. Kelleher On Ireland And Irish America” (Kelleher i). In this book, Kelleher described another Irish-American author’s, James Joyce’s, real intentions of writing his literary work entitled , “The Dead” (Kelleher 40).

Joyce mentioned that he would have been more inspired to write “The Dead” if “circumstances were favorable” in the Irish-American immigrants’ situations in the late 1800’s (Kelleher 40).  He also would have written three other literary works entitled, ”The Last Supper,” “The Street,” “Vengeance,” and “At Bay” if also “circumstances were favorable” in the Irish-American immigrants’ situations in the late 1800’s (Kelleher 40).

Finally, after the situations of the Irish-American immigrants got better, Joyce finally decided to pursue the preparation of his written work entitled, “The Dead” (Kelleher 42). In this work, Joyce depicted a tragic love story in which a man died for his love for his girl in Ireland settings (Kelleher 42). Joyce was depicting this situation as similar in its own way to the hardships Irish people undergo when they plan to immigrate to America due to discrimination they receive in America when they decide to immigrate there (Kelleher 42).

The Irish-American literary works of the late 1800’s also concentrated on the famine and great depression that Irish-American immigrants experienced in America during the mid-late 1800’s (Dowd i). This literary depiction seriously tries to analyze if Irish ethnicity goes in compatibility with American heritage or if they contradict each other (Dowd i).

Author Christopher Dowd defends in his book entitled, ”The Construction Of Irish Identity in American Literature,” much of the Irish culture and heritage are not much mentioned and talked about in its specificity in European literature as Irish people are generally absorbed into an entire general white culture around the globe (Dowd i). Dowd’s book also focuses on the way Irish-American immigrants perceive their Irish ethnicity and how people of other ethnicities perceive their ethnicities as well (Dowd i).

Dowd’s book also tries to study the relevant influences of popular Irish-American literary fictional characters on Irish-Americans’ immigrants lives such as Mark Twain’s Huck Finn  ,Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlet O’Hara and T.S. Eliot’s Sweeney and Frank Norris’ McTeague. (Dowd i).

Works Cited

Dowd, Christopher. The Construction Of Irish Identity In American Literature. USA: Routledge, 2010. Print.

Hedican, Edward. “Irish Farming Households In Eastern Canada: Domestic Production And Family Size (1).” Ethnology 01 January 2003: 1. Print

“Irish American.” Answers.com, answers corporation, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2010.

“Irish American.” Wikipedia.org, Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.

“Irish Canadian.” Wikipedia.org, Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2010.

“Irish Voices.” Siuc.edu, SIUC, n.d., Web. 11 Apr. 2010.

Kelleher, John and Fanning, Charles. John V. Kelleher On Ireland And Irish America. USA: Irish Immigration Studies, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2002. Print.

“New England.” Wikipedia.org, Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2010.