Why Do People Leave Ireland In The Late 1800's - 346 Words (2023)

analytical

explanatory

America, in its earliest stages was full of racial tensions that shaped the course of its entire history and led it to become one of the worst places in the world in regards to discriminating and racist feelings towards immigrating people. However, dreams of making their fortunes, finding a better way of life, and the prospects for jobs made it difficult for the incoming people to want to go anywhere else. Some came willingly while others were brought here or forced here against their will. Comparing two of these immigrant groups that are easily the most different, the Irish and the Blacks, creates a good demonstration of the absolutely unique and yet strangely similar attempts to survive and thrive in an America that in the simplest of terms

Foster, R.F.,ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland. Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York, 1989.

Kinsella, Jim. (1996). Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th Century. Retrieved February 9, 2003. www.kinsella.org/history/histiria.htm

With a hard competition, the Irish fought for equality and claimed that they should be accepted more than a black or Chinese. On page 139 an Irish stated, “How he labored so severely digging cellars, up before the starts and working till darkness, driven like horses to be a slave for the Americans.” The blacks and Irish were both viewed the same and as outcasts. “To be called an Irishman is almost as great an insult as to be stigmatized as a (N word) feller.” Ireland is an island filled with acres of opportunityfor many sorts of agriculture. For centuries the Irish prosperedin their homeland, until the British government stepped in and sought after economic

... slowly begin to live more controllably and prejudice would threaten their lifestyle less and less each decade. However many generations to follow would know the Irish as the poor, disease-stricken, alcoholic and unruly and sub culture. The Irish who immigrated to America may have never seen the America that the myths had spoken of, but future generations could be able to describe America as the golden gate. It is important to understand that the Irish transition to American life was perhaps a strategy for survival rather than a quest for a prosperous future. Given the horrid struggle that Irish faced in their own country, a move to the United States was a very strategic tactic that would affect the Irish for generations to come and so there weren't many options for a people as poor and disregarded as the Irish.

The relocation of so many people in the late 1800’s can be attributed to several push-pull factors. A number of the people that came over to America were from Germany, Ireland and England. In their homelands many experienced crop failure, a stagnant economy and in some cases even a shortage of food. One example of aforementioned crop failures would be the Irish Potato Famine that Ireland suffered through in the mid 1800’s. The plants were plagued with diseases and an estimated one million men, women and children lost their lives.

People from all over the world immigrated to the United States during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Many causes were the attribute to why they came over. Mainly, it was for better living conditions, religious or political freedom, or to find a better life overseas. Unfortunately, it was rarely this way, especially for the Irish, who were a victim of nativism, persecution against immigrants by native people in a country.

This report will be about the Irish in America that was discussed in the documentary and Text book. This will discuss the reasoning behind there mass exodus from Ireland. It will also discuss their trial along with their desire to succeed.

Bagenal decried the relegation of the Irish to “bondage” by their landlord’s extortion of virtually all their income, entrapping them in inescapable toil (43). Americans associated the Irish with laziness, poverty criminality and disease. However, it was not any inclination towards laziness or immorality that drove the Irish to poverty, but poverty that drove the Irish into the squalor that “bread sickness” and other social ills. These social ills, then reinforced old prejudices; which Goodrich pointed out originated with anti-Irish propaganda from England (45, 39).The consequences of discrimination were far reaching with much of the poverty associated with the Irish being driven by prejudice, as Rev, Buckley said the Americans “hate the Irish” and “will not employ an Irishmen if they can help it” in expressing the difficulties the Irish faced in finding work (52). When they did find work it was mostly restricted to low wage labor and servitude due to prejudices about their aptitudes (48). The Irish's perceived “otherness” lead to comparisons to blacks and the Chinese demonstrating the far reaching nature of discrimination (41, 49, 52). What is quite clear from the experiences of Irish is that as America became more pluralistic reactionary forces will demonize and degrade those newcomers, but that those newcomers will eventually become fully integrated and

The Irish were a very culturally different group, when they were introduced in America most races especially WASPs deigned them, labeling them as violent heavy drinkers invading their land with dissolute intentions. As the 19th century dawned over Ireland, the Irish were struck by a great famine. This resulted in millions of Irish citizens moving to the ‘wonderful’ land of opportunity in search of jobs, to send money back home to grandma so she can live her final years in peace.

In the mid 1800s the course of Irish history was changed forever. The Irish were devastated by The Great Potato Famine of the mid to late 1800s. Population declined from over eight million people in 1840 to under 4.5 million in 1900 due to death and immigration (O’Rourke 2). The poorer Irish people, unlike many British citizens, relied almost entirely on agriculture. The Irish immigration not only affected Ireland and Britain, but its affects were felt over much of the world, including the United States. The famine had a significant effect on the future of Irish history including Home Rule legislation, The Easter Uprising of 1916, and the eventual creation of an Irish free state in the early twentieth century.

During the 1840s - 1850s, America experienced it’s “first wave” of immigrants; either trying to escape problems with their own government, spread of famine in native countries, or just simply looking to live a better life. A vast population of Germans immigrated to the U.S. mainly because of issues regarding Germany’s economic and political crisis’ during this period. Though millions of Germans immigrated to the U.S., the majority of America’s immigrants in this period came from Ireland, which was a very poor country during this period that led to a large population of the Irish

that brings the reader’s eye to the effect of sociopolitical policies on the Irish by the

Beginning in the early 1900’s, the insurgence throughout Ireland began once again. James Connolly, an Irish societal leader, was the organizer of many rebellions

In the same year A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published, between 1000 and 1500 Irish patriots tried to capture the town of Dublin on Easter Day. The Easter Rising, as it was called, led to the death of approximately 1000 Irishmen and 500 Britons. Of the 1000 Irishmen, many were women and children, while of the 500 Britons; all were either soldiers or policemen. The Easter Rising was not a spontaneous ev...