Irish Immigration in the Colonial Era

The first significant influx of Irish settlers in North America occurred from about 1715 to the early 1800s. These settlers comprised the so-called Scotch-Irish, a group that we have already discussed at some length in Chapter 3 and about whom we will not have much to say in this chapter. This group tended to be Protestant, specifically Presbyterian, and while often referred to at the time simply as Irish, in actuality there may have been many more Scottish and English among them than Irish. One could perhaps forgive the Irish Catholics, who were at any rate a distinct minority around that time, for declaring that the only thing Irish about many of the Scotch-Irish was in their having come largely from lands that had been wrested from Irish Catholic landowners during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Be that as it may, prior to the early 19th century, the term Irish referred to both of these groups. And as long as the Protestants comprised the majority of the immigrants, as they did until the 1830s, they were happy to be known simply as Irish. But “as political and religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants both in Ireland and the United States became more frequent, and as Catholic immigrants began to outnumber Protestants, the term Irish became synonymous with Irish Catholics.”^[1] Indeed, from about 1830s on, the vast majority of Irish immigrants would be Catholic, a reality that will be discussed in more depth later in this chapter.

Flight from Ireland and Resettlement

Faced with overpopulation, lack of economic opportunity, and English oppression, a million Irish headed to the U.S. between 1815 and 1845 in search of better lives. It was an age of infrastructure development in the U.S., devoted to the building of roads, canals, and harbors, and thousands of Irish men found work as laborers.^[2]

Then in 1845, a potato blight struck Ireland, wiping out 40% of the potato crop, the main and sometimes only food available to many Irish peasants. To make matters worse, the blight recurred periodically for over a decade; one million Irish people died of starvation and another million-and-a-half migrated to the U.S. and Canada. While the first wave of Irish migration had been a mostly male phenomenon, the second wave brought whole families to cities and towns throughout the Northeast.^[3]

After the potato famines passed, the pace of Irish immigration slowed. Even so, between 1855 and 1900, another two million Irish immigrants arrived in the U.S. Throughout the 19th century, Irish laborers were present wherever there was a need for labor. Brigades of Irish men, sometimes as many as a thousand strong, labored in coal mines and on canals, railroads, and highways. The Irish did back-breaking labor, and project bosses exploited them with little regard for their humanity. They were often assigned to the hardest and most dangerous work, and it was not uncommon for workers to be blinded, maimed, or killed in accidents. A popular saying on the railroad was that there was “an Irishman buried under every tie.” Workers digging the canals often stood knee-deep in water, cursing the swarms of mosquitos, and malaria ran rampant among canal workers.^[4]

Social and economic changes in Ireland also left Irish women struggling for survival with few prospects. Changes in inheritance practices, whereby only the eldest sons would inherit their parents’ estates, left non-inheriting sons with no resources to marry, which limited women’s marriage prospects as well. Moreover, the decline of cottage manufacturing, such as weaving, left women with no gainful employment. This drove Irish women to migrate in great numbers. Indeed, “in New York City in 1860, Irish women outnumbered Irish men—117,000 to 87,000.”^[5]

In America, Irish women entered domestic services, becoming maids in the homes of middle- and upper-class Americans. They also became factory workers in the many thriving textile towns of New England, including Lawrence, Holyoke, Fall River, and Lowell. Many Irish women found work in the sewing trades. In fact, by 1900, Irish women comprised one third of all the seamstresses and dressmakers in the U.S. But wages in the garment industry were low, and the work was dirty and repetitive. In addition, working conditions in the factories could also be dangerous.^[6]

Impoverished and Despised

Contrary to the romantic notion of America as a land of unlimited possibilities for an immigrant, life in 19th century America began as a nightmare for many Irish immigrants. The British writer Charles Dickens in a visit to the United States described the abject poverty of Irish families in vivid language:

They lived in “clumsy, rough and wretched hovels,” made with “roofs of sod and grass” and “walls of mud.” … “Hideously ugly old women and very buxom young ones, pigs, dogs, men, children, babies, pots, kettles, dung hills, vile refuse, rank straw and standing water, all wallowing together in an inseparable heap, composed the furniture of every dark and dirty hut.”^[7]

 

Native-born Americans often disparaged the Irish, seeing them, in their desperate poverty, as moral failures rather than victims of circumstance. The Irish were stereotyped and condemned for all sorts of supposed negative traits—for laziness, gambling, drinking, undue levity, impudence, unruliness and disorderly behavior, ignorance, stupidity, criminality, and even for their “pungent odor.” Many of these alleged negative traits are the same ones that White Americans ascribed to non-White ethnic groups from the very beginning (and today’s White supremacists still traffic in them). In the 19th century, White ministers, like Reverend Theodor Parker of Boston, even proclaimed bigoted opinions from the pulpit claiming, in a sermon entitled The Dangerous Classes, that “some people were ‘inferior in nature, some perhaps only behind us in development’ on ‘a lower form in the great school of Providence—negroes, Indians, Mexicans, Irish and the like.'”^[8]

Because Irish immigrants were predominantly Catholic, their presence also provoked Anglo-American anti-Catholic fears. The overwhelming majority of the first colonial settlers had been Protestant, and many, such as the New England Puritans, were particularly threatened by Catholicism. In the 1840s and 1850s, Irish immigrants became a target of hatred by members of the so-called Know Nothings—a nativist movement and political party that rose to prominence around that time. (The name was a reference to an agreement by members, that if asked anything about the organization, they were to say they “know nothing” about it.) The Know Nothings were anti-immigrant in general but anti-Irish in particular.^[9] They whipped up anti-Irish sentiment, promoting conspiracy theories, among them that “major cities were being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants” who were “hostile to American values and controlled by the Pope in Rome.”^[10]

Green Power Rising

From the Ashes to the Mainstream

Although many first generation Irish immigrants clung desperately to the lowest rungs of American society, nativist judgements of Irish potential could not have been more mistaken. By the early 1900s, young Irish Americans were more likely than their Protestant peers to attend college; they had even begun to gain admission to elite institutions, such as Harvard University. Irish immigrant mothers may have been uneducated and well suited only for domestic service or factory work, but few of their daughters followed in their footsteps. In 1900, young Irish women were secretaries, nurses and teachers. In 1910, one-fifth of all public school teachers in northern cities were Irish American women.^[11]

A rural people in Ireland, the Irish had become largely city dwellers in the U.S., comprising a substantial proportion of the populations of major cities, like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.^[12] Putting the indignities suffered by the first generation behind them, second- and third-generation Irish Americans became politically astute in a way that perhaps no other immigrant group ever has. As Fuchs has noted, “No group took as rapidly to American politics as the Irish,” and mastery of local politics became their route to social and economic advancement.^[13]

By the late 1880s, the Irish had become ubiquitous as municipal employees, holding jobs in fire and police departments, utilities, subways, streetcar lines, ports, and in city halls itself. They occupied a significant niche in the building trades. The Irish were fiercely pro-union, and many prominent leaders in the labor movement were Irish. Indeed, within a matter of several generations, the Irish, who had come with nothing, occupied a prominent place in civic America. In so doing, they also came to epitomize the myth that in America it was possible to rise “from rags to riches.”^[14]

And whereas the first Irish immigrants had left with great reluctance, mourning their departures, life and the passage of time had a way of rewriting their sentiments.

“We have too many loved ones in the Cemetery here to leave them,” an immigrant wrote to her brother in Ireland. “We have been here a long time—and it is home to us now.”^[15]

Irish American Genius for Politics

With politics as one of the surest paths to success in the United States, the Irish found themselves well positioned to take advantage of it. According to historian Jay Dolan, the Irish began their political rise in the 19th century by gaining leadership positions in the ubiquitous local volunteer fire departments. From these neighborhood bases, they acquired access to political power. They aligned themselves with the Democratic Party, built powerful political machines, and took control of city and state governments. They nominated Al Smith, an Irish Catholic, as a candidate for president in 1928. Although Smith lost, “he blazed a trail for another Irish Catholic, John F. Kennedy, who would seek the presidency in 1960 and win.” For many Irish Americans, “Kennedy’s victory, was the culmination of the Irish Catholic ascent from immigrant shantytowns to the most distinguished address in the country, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” Remarkably, “a great-grandson of an Irish immigrant who fled the famine had been elected to the highest office in the land.”^[16]

But what attracted the Irish to politics in the first place, and why were they so successful compared to other immigrant groups?

First, in the course of their historical struggles against English domination in the United Kingdom, the Irish had become keenly aware of the need for political organization and had developed effective strategies for political mobilization that would be valuable assets in American politics. Another cultural advantage the Irish enjoyed was their “familiarity with Anglo-Saxon law and government,” which had been transplanted to the United States. They knew how a town or city government was supposed to work. They understood “the role of a policeman or judge, and the court was a familiar institution.”^[17]

In addition, the English language ability of Irish immigrants was often highly developed; the school system in Ireland had ensured it. Therefore, Irish immigrants did not face the same language barriers upon their arrival that, for example, the Germans or the Italians faced. This not only speeded their path to naturalized citizenship status, but “it also gave them immediate access to political participation.”^[18]

Certain historical developments also provided the Irish with tools to dominate the political scene. As it happened, the Irish began arriving in large numbers “just when American party politics was taking off” and when “modern city governments were beginning to take shape.” One particularly significant event was the emergence of the “political machine.” As Dolan has described it, “The machine was a political organization that operated outside of, but often controlled, the legally established government.” Its key to success was the ability to organize voters and gain their support by delivering tangible benefits, including jobs and other forms of economic support. “The Irish became the leading practitioners of machine politics.” By working zealously on behalf of the people, Irish politicians got very good at remaining in power.^[19]

The Irish also used the local saloon as well as the Church to great effect as political vehicles. The saloon became “the neighborhood base for the political machine, a gathering place where jobs were brokered and voters mobilized,” while the Church reinforced “the importance of the personal touch” and “also nurtured the sense of tribal loyalty as well as the value of hierarchical rule or what in politics was known as boss rule.”^[20]

The Irish had little use for the Republican Party because of its nativist faction, as well as its anti-slavery stance. Not that the Irish were in favor of slavery, but abolition was not a burning issue for the Irish since they saw emancipated Black laborers as competitors for jobs. And not only that, but “a significant segment of the abolitionist community” were anti-Catholic and anti-Irish. Moreover, the Republican Party’s ideology of “free labor” ran counter to working class interests in the rights “to organize and make collective demands on factory owners and industrialists.” The vast majority of Irish, therefore, continued to support the Democratic Party (as they had ever since the Jeffersonian era) because of its pro-immigration policies.^[21][22]

Tammany Hall

The political machine most closely associated with the Irish was the Democratic organization in New York City known as Tammany Hall, which virtually “ruled the city … from the 1850s to the 1930s” and was controlled for most of that time by Irish political bosses.^[23] Often remembered for its deep-rooted corruption and political patronage, Tammany Hall remained in power primarily by reliably providing tangible benefits to the average citizen. While its bosses often used the machine to enrich themselves, they did not fail to dispense jobs, social services, and political favors to the city’s growing immigrant population, particularly the Irish, but also to other groups that came later. These services may have demanded political loyalty, but they provided reliable support to many working-class New Yorkers in times of need, and in some cases, contributed to their upward mobility.^[24]

Central to the operation of a successful political machine was “the boss.” Of the series of colorful political bosses that ran Tammany Hall, perhaps the most notable ones were those that dominated New York politics between 1863 and 1924. The most notorious was undoubtedly William Tweed (1863–1871) who presided over a period of rampant corruption involving embezzlement and bribery. Tweed was not Irish; he was, rather, the son of a third-generation Scottish chair-maker, and therefore he preceded the run of Irish bosses that would come after him.^[25]

But Tweed is best known for establishing the close association in the public mind between Tammany Hall and rampant corruption. Tweed’s control of city contracts and public funds made him immensely wealthy, but when the extravagant spending and the corrupt dealings of the infamous “Tweed Ring,” a small inner circle of Tweed’s closest allies, became too public to ignore, Tweed was convicted of fraud and imprisoned.^[26]

John Kelly (1874–1886) succeeded Tweed and was the first Irishman to lead Tammany Hall. (He would be followed over the years by a succession of nine more Irishmen.) Known as Honest John, Kelly had been untouched by the Tweed scandal, and whether or not he was as entirely honest as his nickname implied, he strove with modest success to repair the organization’s reputation. But his primary achievement was to shape the organization into a model of efficacy and efficiency, creating a hierarchical system that resembled the Catholic Church. The base of operations was the neighborhood divided into precincts—akin to local parishes—each precinct having its own locally elected boss—thus mirroring the role of the parish priest. The precinct boss “had his block captains, who worked on his behalf,” especially on election day. The machine was very effective in turning out the vote, and to further assure victory, the machine rewarded loyal voters with jobs. “Tammany was able to offer as many as forty thousand jobs.”^[27]

When John Kelly died, Richard Croker (1886–1902) took over as Tammany Hall’s boss. Croker faced several new challenges to Tammany’s influence. During Kelly’s tenure, the machine had become more closely aligned with the business community, which improved its public image but also forced it “to adopt a conservative fiscal policy that limited spending.” This meant that Tammany had to cut back on patronage jobs and services, causing a loss of support among the working class who abandoned Tammany’s candidate in the 1886 New York mayoral race. Even though many Irish workers who usually supported Tammany voted for the opposition candidate, Tammany’s candidate managed to win anyway thanks to “the support of the business community, together with Croker’s ability to get out the vote.” However, after the scare, Croker “reversed course and severed Tammany’s alliance with the business community.”^[28]

Charles Murphy (1902–1924) succeeded Croker. Murphy was by some accounts the most effective boss in Tammany’s history. He “took over a weakened Tammany Hall, cleansing it of its reputation for corruption and giving it an aura of respectability”  during the era of reform known as “progressivism,” which was a movement that sought to bring about “social justice, educational and legal reform, and the downsizing of government.” The work of the progressives “was most visible in the large cities, where reformers sought to alleviate the hardships brought on by industrial urban growth.”  For his part, Murphy was a strong supporter of “a good deal of social reform legislation.” During Murphy’s tenure as the leader of Tammany, the organization “reached the pinnacle of its success,” with the ability to project power beyond the city all the way to the state house.^[29]

After Murphy, Ed Flynn (1924–1934) took the reins of Tammany Hall during a period when its power and influence had begun to wane. While Flynn was still able to achieve remarkable electoral successes by adhering to the traditional Tammany playbook, he was not blind to the changing political landscape. He recognized that the era of machine politics was coming to an end. Flynn responded by building a strong relationship with Franklin Roosevelt, “helping him win the governorship of New York and then doing all he could to elect him president.” Flynn threw his full support behind the New Deal, championing “the social legislation that brought an unprecedented degree of security and opportunity to ordinary Americans.” Flynn’s support of the New Deal enabled many immigrants to better their economic circumstances.^[30]

Thus, as Peter Quinn has noted:

Tammany didn’t wither into extinction after Murphy died [as is sometimes claimed]. Flynn took up the mantle and wore it successfully, regally. He was the true last emperor. The machine survived long enough after his death to be an early and important supporter of John F. Kennedy, but the glory days were over. Everybody knew it.^[31]

*   *   *

In conclusion, the decline of Tammany Hall after the 1920s was primarily a result of two major historical developments. First, the rise of New Deal programs, designed to cope with the ravages of the Great Depression, had rendered somewhat obsolete Tammany Hall’s traditional role as a “quasi-agency of social welfare and legal aid.”^[32] Secondly, the introduction of greater government regulation and accountability in the New Deal era undercut Tammany’s traditional, often questionable, ways of doing business.

In the final analysis, Tammany Hall was undoubtedly more than merely a corrupt institution as has so often been claimed. It was the product of Irish political genius, and in its heyday, it provided essential services and opportunities for countless immigrants and working-class Americans, Irish and non-Irish alike.

Growing Up Catholic in Mid-20th Century America

By the 20th century, being Irish in America was virtually synonymous with being Catholic. Of course, not all Catholics were Irish. The Italians and the Polish, who immigrated in significant numbers between the late 19th and the early 20th century, were also overwhelmingly Catholic. Indeed, according to Mary O’Donnell, who examined the Catholic American experience during the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, Catholic affiliation during those decades was usually accompanied by an ethnic identity as well. “Most people,” in other words, “would not have been known simply as Catholic, but rather as Irish Catholic, or Italian Catholic,” or Polish Catholic.^[33] (Hispanic Catholics were undoubtedly present as well, but in the urban North during the era in focus here, Hispanic Catholics “usually found themselves scattered among communities of otherwise European descendants,” and their voices have been less well documented.)^[34]

An Irish Catholic growing up in the mid-20th century typically engaged in a range of religious practices deeply rooted in the traditions of the Catholic Church. John Feerick’s description of his Irish Catholic upbringing depicts a household that would have been fairly typical.

From the earliest age it was understood that attendance at Sunday Mass was compulsory. We also attended Mass on holy days and went to confession frequently. The confessional style of the priests varied. Some were formal with the penance, requesting the reciting of a few prayers, for example, while others were informal, requesting an extra good deed for the day. Baptisms, First Communions, and Confirmations were major family celebrations, and friends and relatives were invited to take part in the festivities, which included socializing, music, and food.

Pictures of the Sacred Heart, the Blessed Mother, and the Holy Family graced the walls of our home, expressing Irish spirituality, along with several crucifixes. We wore miraculous medals and scapulars as visible signs of our faith and as protection against evil.^[35]

Feerick also describes the strict adherence to the many rules required of “a good Catholic:” Confessing your sins to a priest was very important, as already noted above. You couldn’t eat anything after midnight on Saturday if you wanted to receive Communion on Sunday, and you couldn’t eat meat on Fridays. As a result, Friday meals often consisted of fish. You recited the rosary, usually in the living room, as a family devotional activity.

As a good Catholic, you experienced the passage of the year in terms of a religious calendar that included particular seasons representing events in the life of Christ. You were particularly tuned in to the seasons leading up to the major Holy Days—Advent in the case of Christmas and Lent in the case of Easter. (Your non-Catholic friends, unless they happened to be, for example, Lutheran or Episcopalian, might be particularly mystified by your Lenten practices, if they learned of them at all, but even the Lutherans or Episcopalians might not be familiar with devotional practices like meditating on the Stations of the Cross.) You were also supposed to give up something of personal importance during Lent, the exact nature of which could be a serious dilemma for you, although candy or other sweets was often the most obvious sacrifice. Your non-Catholic friends would no doubt have found your dilemma amusing; at any rate, they may have been amazed at what a long affair Lent was with its forty days of partial fasting (starting on Ash Wednesday and ending only on Easter Sunday) during which time you definitely didn’t eat meat on Fridays, even if you weren’t particularly strict about that rule during the rest of the year, which was unlikely anyway if you were a good Irish Catholic.^[36]

*   *   *

At the center of Catholic life was the parish. For many Catholics growing up in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, “the neighborhood was the parish and the parish was the neighborhood.” That being the case, “the question ‘Where are you from?’ would likely yield a response like ‘St. Patrick’s’ or ‘St. Anthony’s’ rather than any town or street name.” And once a person had identified themselves by parish, their ethnic identity was also quite likely to be established since it was often (although not always) the case that Catholics tended to cluster together within their various co-ethnic enclaves—Irish over here, Italians over there, etc.^[37]

One of the key institutions in the parish was the elementary school. Catholic parishes spent a considerable portion of their budgets on schools, keeping tuition quite affordable. Consequently, Catholic children rarely attended public schools, at least not until high school, when the cost of attending a large Catholic high school might have been prohibitive to most families. According to Dolan, “In most Irish neighborhoods the Catholic parish had a monopoly on education … By cornering the market on elementary education, the school solidified the sense of belonging that people had toward the parish.”^[38]

During the middle years of the 20th century, Catholic elementary schools were staffed primarily by nuns, or sisters as they were called, who worked for meager wages. “By the late 1950s as many as two thirds of all the sisters in the country were teaching in parish schools.” Many of them were young and not particularly well prepared for teaching, and what’s more, they could have classes of fifty to sixty students. But somehow they managed, and in general, the people held the sisters in high esteem. Many had reputations as strict disciplinarians. As Dolan has observed:

Their word was law, and the discipline they fostered has become legendary. Students had to line up for everything—going to the bathroom, to church, or to recess. Stepping out of line or talking in line was not acceptable. All students wore the same uniform, and no one dared to show up out of the uniform.^[39]

As for the curriculum, it included standard academic subjects such as math, science, social studies, and language arts alongside religious studies. Catechism classes were a common feature, focusing on imparting the teachings of the Catholic faith. In short, parish schools sought to ensure that students received a well-rounded, basic education, while also instilling in them a sense of self-discipline, faith, moral values, and a close connection to the Catholic Church.

*   *   *

Between the domains of parish and home was the neighborhood, which “had its own way of establishing expectations and ingraining habits among the youth.” As suggested earlier, “the settlement patterns of early immigrant Catholics would determine a significant character within the parish. With Catholic families usually settling together and ultimately organizing according to ethnic origins, enclaves among groups of Catholics from particular European countries emerged.” A child growing up Catholic in the urban North during the mid-twentieth century might “find herself surrounded by Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics, or Polish Catholics for most of her childhood.” And this would tend to influence the nature of her religious experience.^[40] In other words, the Irish experience of Catholicism could differ in myriad ways from the Italian experience.

As O’Donnell has noted, the intimate connection between Irish Catholics and their parish priests gave them “a certain comfort level … in parish life and church involvement” as well as “a sense of loyalty to the institutional church” that may have exceeded that of other ethnic groups. In her book, Ingrained Habits, for instance, Mary O’Donnell illustrates the point,^[41] by citing writer Helen Barolini, who grew up Italian alongside the Irish. Describing what she learned from her Irish neighbor and friend Mary Ann Sheed, Barolini writes:

I could tell even then, that anyone Irish was more Catholic than I was. Mary Ann, in fact, took her uncle the priest very seriously; she took holy days and fasts very seriously; she did her penance devotedly; she could recite the ‘laws’ of the church with absolute certainty to tell me when I was afoul of them.^[42]

Indeed, contrasting religious sensibilities often put Irish Catholics and Italian Catholics at odds. Where “the Irish prized obedience to clerical authority,” as suggested earlier, “southern Italian immigrants were known to have an anticlerical streak.” Where Italian Catholics were devoted to the veneration of saints, Irish Catholics found such practices difficult, if not impossible, to understand. When “feast days and devotions would bring Italians into the streets for parades and rites, … the more straitlaced” Irish Catholics could feel embarrassed “in front of … Protestant onlookers.”^[43]

On the other hand, Irish Catholics had their own cultural preoccupations. The element of death, for instance, is a theme that pervades narratives characterizing Irish American Catholic practice. As O’Donnell has recounted:

There is an old (albeit morbid) joke that calls the obituary section of the newspaper the Irish sports page—they followed this kind of news closely. Going to wakes—ritual viewings of the body and paying respects after a person has died—turns out to be a requirement for the Irish. In fact, missing the wake of a neighbor might even be considered a sin.^[44]

Irish Catholics growing up in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, in O’Donnell’s estimation, also seem to have harbored a heightened susceptibility to guilt. Whether facing “minor lapses like missing a wake or confession,” or “more conscious indulgences like achieving some worldly success,” life seemed to cause Irish Catholics to grapple with an exaggerated sense of guilt. But then, “guilt might seem a natural consequence” of a life lived so closely connected to a clergy and an institutional church that issued constant reminders of “the detriment of sin and the importance of confession,” which seem to prompt in many Irish Catholics a continual scrupulous review of their behavior for the possibility of sin.^[45]

*   *   *

The American religious environment has changed considerably since the middle decades of the 20th century. The European ethnic enclaves of those years have largely disappeared, and with them the previous dependence on the local parish for identity and community.^[46] This does not mean that parishes have become irrelevant, however. According to Quinn, places like New York still offer a vibrant Catholic life at the parish level, with local churches serving as “a touchstone for different cultures and classes” where “immigrants, working-class ethnics and college-educated professionals share more than just the same sidewalks.” The old 19th and 20th century European immigrants may have moved on, but today “the Church’s ethnic composition has been made richer” and “more complicated by a wealth of new immigrants, including Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Haitians, Mexicans, Chinese, Africans, and Vietnamese.”^[47]

Moreover, American Catholicism itself has undergone significant transformations, especially since the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), which led to a reevaluation of traditional beliefs and practices. For example, church services began to be conducted in the language of the people instead of in Latin; the ritual of meatless Fridays was discontinued; lay participation in liturgical roles increased significantly; the Church became more open to dialogue with other Christian denominations;^[48] and a heightened emphasis on social justice, human rights, and religious freedom emerged.^[49]

In short, by the end of the 20th century, “the insular embrace of Catholic life” that characterized the mid-20th century had become just “a collective memory”^[50]—but, we should add, one in which Irish Americans played an outsized role.

Contributions to Literature and Pop Culture

Literature

Irish Americans have left an indelible mark on American literature, journalism, and popular culture. In the early decades of the 20th century, for instance, Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953) became one of the first American playwrights to introduce techniques of realism into drama. The tragedy Long Day’s Journey into Night is often included on lists of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century. O’Neill won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as four Pulitzer Prizes for Drama.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), often hailed as the voice of the Jazz Age, captured the essence of the Roaring Twenties and revealed the fragility of the American Dream in his novel The Great Gatsby—a book often included in the American high school English curriculum.

John O’Hara (1905–1970) published novels, novellas, plays, screenplays and more than 400 short stories, the majority of them in The New Yorker. Indeed, he virtually helped to invent The New Yorker magazine short story style. In much of his work, he adopted “the perspective of an outsider on the inside” of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant society. His novel, Ten North Frederick, won the 1956 National Book Award (although O’Hara himself considered From the Terrace to be his best novel).

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) grew up in Georgia and “relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters, often in violent situations.” Her writing often examined questions of Catholic morality and ethics as well. O’Connor’s short stories have often been included in anthologies, and in 1972, she won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction for “her posthumously compiled Complete Stories.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933–2023) virtually reinvented the Western genre. McCarthy generally explored existential themes that were more universal than distinctly Irish, through novels often set in the American West or other stark landscapes. His 1985 novel, Blood Meridian, has been regarded by some as a Great American Novel, (on the order of Moby Dick, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn). The Road, published in 2006, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Many of McCarthy’s works have been made into films.

Born in Brooklyn, Frank McCourt (1930–2009) grew up largely in Ireland, as his family had moved back there when he was four years old. But at age nineteen, McCourt returned to the U.S., finished the education that had been interrupted by childhood poverty, and became a teacher. At age 67, McCourt published the best-selling memoir Angela’s Ashes, “a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood.” Angela’s Ashes became an immediate best seller, and McCourt won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997. He went on to publish two more memoirs, ‘Tis and Teacher Man.

Pete Hamill (1935–2020) was a versatile writer—a journalist, novelist, essayist, and editor. Known for exploring urban life, social issues, and the immigrant experience, his journalism skillfully captured the essence of New York City. His novels, including Forever and Snow in August, reflect a deep connection to his Irish American roots. His memoir, A Drinking Life, is a candid exploration of his experiences with alcohol, its impact on his life, and the journey to overcome alcoholism.

The work of Alice McDermott (b. 1953) is inspired by the Brooklyn Irish Catholic community where she grew up. Her novels and short stories feature vivid depictions of family life that often startle Irish Americans in their power to transport readers to a nostalgic past, or sometimes a past that they would prefer to forget. Her characters are almost always Irish American, Catholic, and working class. Three of McDermott’s novels were named as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, and one—Charming Billy—won the National Book Award.

Obviously, the above profiles are only meager sketches of just a few prominent Irish Americans who have contributed to the American literary landscape.

Popular Music

Irish Americans have been involved in the commercial American music scene since its beginning. For example, Bing Crosby, the Dorsey brothers (Jimmy and Tommy), and others during the big band era had Irish ancestry. The rock and roll era of the 1950s, ’60s, and ‘70s featured musicians of partial Irish ancestry too, such as Judy Collins, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, John Fogerty, and Kurt Cobain, among others. Younger contemporary pop musicians like Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, and Billie Eilish are also reputed to have some Irish American ancestry. Even some musicians of African American heritage do, such as Alicia Keys and Beyoncé. But nothing seems particularly Irish about the music of any of them.

In order to find music reminiscent of Ireland aimed at a mass audience, it is necessary to look beyond the mainstream music industry. Folk musicians, of course, have always been the keepers of cultural traditions, and Irish music has long flourished informally in areas of the U.S. with large Irish communities. But public interest in Irish folk enjoyed a renaissance in the 1960s and ’70s, facilitated by the rise of independent music labels and later by the internet, both of which helped popularize niche genres, including Celtic inspired music.

With increasing frequency, Irish American musicians have teamed up with musicians from Ireland, as well as musicians having no particular Irish ancestry to create Celtic fusions, combining Celtic folk instruments, such as fiddles, bagpipes, and tin whistles, sometimes with electric guitars, drums, and keyboards and incorporating elements of rock, jazz, or other genres into traditional Celtic melodies and rhythms. In concert and on recorded albums, they typically play a mix of Irish traditional music along with original creations.

One of the earliest and most popular folk bands is the all-women supergroup Cherish the Ladies, established in 1985. The original members were all Irish American, and two of them remain with the group as of 2023: the leader, Joanie Madden, and Mary Coogan. Past members include Maureen Doherty Macken, Winifred Horan, Liz Carroll, Eileen Ivers, Aoife Clancy, and Kathy Ryan, among others. The group lineup has changed considerably over the years and currently includes a number of native Irish musicians, reflecting today’s increasing trend towards global collaborations.

Another American-based supergroup with a lineup that includes Irish American and native-Irish musicians is Solas, which formed in 1996. Solas—from an Irish word meaning “light”—plays Irish traditional music as well as original compositions influenced by country, rock, and Americana genres. Prominent members include Séamus Egan, Winifred Horan (from Cherish the Ladies), John Doyle, Karan Casey and John Williams. Tell God and the Devil (see below) speaks to the early Irish American immigrant experience. Runa, established in 2009, is example of a Celtic fusion band, which combines the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland with modern music such as folk and jazz. Its members, too, represent an international collaboration, coming from Canada, Ireland, and the United States.

Among the Irish American bands that blend Irish folk tunes with a rock and roll or punk vibe is the Fenians, established in 1990 in Orange County, California, by Terry Casey, the son of Irish immigrants. The band takes its name from a pair of organizations, one in Ireland and the other in the U.S., which, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, were dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic free from British rule. Other bands that blend rock and Irish folk include the Young Dubliners (est. 1988), The Elders, (est. 1998), and the punk rock group known as Dropkick Murphys (est. 1996).

Cinema, Television and Comedy

As was the case with popularly recognized musicians, numerous American actors can be identified that have at least partial Irish ancestry on either the maternal or paternal side. Jack Nicholson, for example, whose mother was of Irish, English, German, and Welsh descent, has identified as Irish, “comparing himself to the playwright Eugene O’Neill, whom he played in the film Reds.” Biographer Dennis McDougal has quoted Nicholson as having once quipped, “I’m not saying I’m as dark as he [O’Neill] was … but I am a writer, I am Irish, I have had problems with my family.”^[51] Other well-known actors claiming partial Irish heritage include, Robert Redford, Sharon Stone, Tom Cruise, Lindsay Lohan, and Jennifer Lawrence.

But the entertainment industry is replete with examples Hollywood actors and directors, as well as TV icons, whose Irish heritage lies perhaps closer to the surface. For example, renowned Hollywood director John Ford (born John Martin Feeney) was the son of parents who had both emigrated from Ireland in the late 1800s. Ford is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of American cinema, leaving behind iconic films like The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and The Quiet Man (1952), the latter being a romantic comedy starring John Wayne as an Irish American returning to his homeland and Maureen O’Hara as a strong-willed and independent Irish woman. O’Hara herself was born Maureen FitzSimons in Dublin, Ireland, in 1920, but immigrated to the United States and become a naturalized citizen in 1956. O’Hara starred in many movies but was perhaps never adequately appreciated. “In 2009,The Guardian named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.”

Other actors of Irish American heritage who made their mark during the “Golden Age of Hollywood” include Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Maureen Stapleton, and Grace Kelly. Celebrated for his naturalistic and understated performances in a wide range of roles, Spencer Tracy had a career that spanned nearly four decades. He was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor and won the Oscar twice, once for Captains Courageous (1937) and again the next year for Boys Town (1938). James Cagney gained fame for his intense and dynamic portrayals of tough characters in classics like The Public Enemy (1931), but his talents extended to dance, notably showcased in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor.

Maureen Stapleton, a versatile and prolific performer, grew up in a strict but troubled Irish American Catholic family. From stage to cinema to TV, she captivated audiences with powerful performances, earning acclaim for her roles in films such as Airport (1970), for which she won a Golden Globe, and Reds (1981), which earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. (Her many other nominations and awards are too numerous to mention here.) Grace Kelly, Irish American on her father’s side, achieved fame over a brief career spanning the 1950s, winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in John Ford’s adventure-romance Mogambo (1953), as well as one for Best Actress in the drama The Country Girl (1954). Alfred Hitchcock cast her in three of his thrillers: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955).

*   *   *

In the realm of television sitcoms, two influential Irish American actors who captivated audiences during the 1950s were Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, best known for their roles on The Honeymooners. The show revolved around the lives of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), a loud but lovable bus driver, and his best friend and neighbor, Ed Norton (Art Carney), a humble and quirky sewing worker. Gleason brought a boisterous and flamboyant comedic style to the show that contrasted with Art Carney’s more understated approach. Together, their distinct styles and on-screen chemistry undoubtedly made The Honeymooners one of television’s beloved classic sitcoms.

In the 1970s, Carroll O’Connor, another Irish American actor, created an iconic character in his role as Archie Bunker in All in the Family, a groundbreaking sitcom that revolved around the confrontational interactions between the outspoken and bigoted blue-collar worker Archie and his family and neighbors. The show addressed social and political issues of the time, using humor to explore topics like racism, sexism, and generational differences. O’Connor’s delivery of extended monologues peppered with malapropisms and humorous contradictions betrayed the Archie character’s simplistic worldview and made the show a satirical masterpiece.

Another influential Irish American in the television sitcom genre is Ed O’Neill, who starred in two notable sitcoms. In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, O’Neill portrayed Al Bundy, a disgruntled shoe salesman with a sarcastic wit as he navigating the challenges of a dysfunctional family life, in the irreverent sitcom Married with Children. Then in the 2010s, O’Neill adopted a more nuanced comedic style in Modern Family, taking on the role of Jay Pritchett, the patriarch of a diverse family that shatters the myth of the conventional American nuclear family, as rooted in the 1950s stereotype. The show features a family that includes a “traditional” nuclear family, a blended family, and a same-sex married couple.

*   *   *

Irish Americans have also made significant contributions to the world of stand-up comedy, with George Carlin standing out as a pioneer who helped revolutionize the genre. Known for his insightful and provocative observations on society, Carlin challenged conventional norms, pushing the boundaries of language and topics deemed acceptable on stage. In the 1970s, Carlin perfected his “seven dirty words” routine that culminated in a recitation of the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” The routine led to a legal battle—the FCC v. Pacifica Foundation—that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.^[52] The case was a landmark in the ongoing debate about free speech and censorship in entertainment. Over the years, Carlin’s fearless approach to tackling taboo subjects influenced subsequent generations of comedians, forever changing the landscape of stand-up comedy.

Another famous Irish American stand-up comedian is the political satirist and late-night talk show host Bill Maher, known for his acerbic wit and his penchant for engaging with controversial political and social issues. Maher has hosted a weekly talk show since 2003, Real Time with Bill Maher, that features a panel of guests, including politicians, journalists, activists, and celebrities, discussing current events, politics, and popular culture. With a reputation for unfiltered discussions, the program has become a platform for open dialogue and irreverent commentary on the issues of the day.

Perhaps no other Irish American stand-up comedian infuses their routines with as many reflections on Irish Catholicism as does Kathleen Madigan, who grew up in a large Irish Catholic family and attended a Catholic school. Madigan’s comedy features a down-to-earth, observational style that pokes fun at the mundane realities of everyday life and their absurdities. Her witty and relatable stories cover a broad range of topics, including family dynamics, travel experiences, and the quirks of modern living, including observations inspired by her Catholic upbringing.

The Irish have been praised, stereotypically perhaps, for their wit. George Carlin, Bill Maher, and Kathleen Madigan have certainly done their part to live up to the reputation.

Sports

As hard as it might be to believe, there was a time when spectator sports were not considered respectable in Anglo-America. In fact, throughout the 1800s, the middle classes regarded participation in sports as an “immoral, socially debilitating waste of time.” It wasn’t until about 1920 that sports became a “respectable, modernized national obsession.” However, the Irish never shared the English disdain for sports. Quite the contrary, the Irish regarded sports as an appropriate demonstration of masculinity—it being an era when sports were an exclusively male endeavor—and since Irish Americans “already existed at the fringes of social respectability,” they had no respectability to lose anyway. Besides that, Irishmen were culturally predisposed to sports, which “had long been valued as a form of recreation in Irish society.” An Irishman, therefore, found no downside to pursuing a sporting career and could even make a little money at it because watching sports had entertainment value for spectators.^[53]

What’s more, the typical Irishman’s life of manual labor prepared him well for strenuous physical competition. As Christopher Dowd has explained, “When sports began to gain traction in American culture, the Irish, as a class, were more physically prepared to participate than Anglo Americans.” In addition, because similarly well-prepared African Americans were prevented by racial discrimination from competing in professional sports, Irish Americans faced reduced competition, making it even easier to rise to the top. And as an added benefit, success in sports enabled an Irishman to transform his own (presumably primitive) ethnic characteristics—strength, pugnacity, etc.—into “qualities befitting a good boxer or ballplayer,” and “the cliché qualities of incivility, violence, laziness, and ineffectuality were stripped away.” In short, in the early 20th century when sport finally became a popular American obsession, it was as if the “Americanization” of the Irish was complete.^[54] This does not mean, however, that the prejudice directed at the Irish stopped entirely.

Boxing

Among the first sports to gain widespread appeal in the United States in the 19th century were boxing and baseball, and the Irish virtually dominated both sports in the early years. The most famous Irish American boxer, and the first modern sports celebrity, was John L. Sullivan, who began his boxing career in the era of bare-knuckle fighting and was the first world heavyweight champion under modern rules, after the introduction of padded boxing gloves. Another famous Irish American boxer during the early days of the sport was “Gentleman” Jim Corbett, who defeated John L. Sullivan in 1892 for the world heavyweight title. In the 20th century, the heavyweight ring continued to be dominated by Irish Americans, like Jack Dempsey, who held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926, and Gene Tunney, who held it from 1926 to 1928.^[55]

Baseball

Baseball, which evolved out of variety of different stick and ball games, emerged in the second half of the 19th century as a quintessentially American game, but to Irish immigrants, baseball seemed like a very Irish game, and as baseball spread, Irishmen showed up to play the game in greater numbers than any other ethnic group. By the 1890s, Irish Americans dominated the sport, and journalists estimated that one-third to one-half of all baseball players were of Irish descent. In the late 1800s, Michael Joseph Kelly, the son of an Irish immigrant paper maker, was known as the “king” of baseball. Irish Americans also went on to dominate baseball in the early 20th century, with notable players like Joe Cronin, Jimmy Collins, Tim Keefe, and Ted Lyons earning places in the Hall of Fame. Other Irish Americans went on to become managers after retiring as players, including Connie Mack, Joe McCarthy, and John McGraw, all of whom became Hall of Fame members for their contributions to management. And Walter O’Malley, as the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is often credited with initiating the process of desegregating professional baseball by recruiting Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the major leagues (although the extent of O’Malley’s commitment to integration is a subject of historical debate).^[56]

Other Games and Sports

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Irish Americans also excelled in a number of other sports. Michael Phelan and Dudley Kavanagh, two of the most proficient billiards players in the United States, turned that game from a barroom pastime into a respectable spectator sport. Maurice McLoughlin, “the child of Irish immigrant parents, became a tennis champion” despite the fact that at the time tennis tended to be a game only played by the wealthy. Four major icons of early golf—Henry Chandler Egan, John J. McDermott, Mike Brady, and Tom McNamara—all descended from Irish immigrants. McDermott won the U.S. Open in 1911 and 1912, and Egan won the gold medal at the 1904 Olympics. In 1896, another Irishman, also named John J. McDemott, won the first official marathon to be run in the U.S., and the following year he won the first annual Boston Marathon—”a race that was dominated by Irish runners in its first 20 years.”^[57]

Many Irish Americans represented the United States “at the 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1912 Olympic Games,” winning various running, jumping, and throwing events. According to Dowd, “Irish-born runner and wrestler John Daly, regarded as ‘the Champion Athlete of the World’ in the 1870s, went on … to win the silver medal in the steeplechase at the 1904 Olympics. Four-time Olympic gold medalist runner Mel Sheppard was the most acclaimed star of the 1908 Olympics. Martin Sheridan … won nine Olympic medals,” for the United States, including five golds. Other notable track and field athletes of the time included pole vaulter John Holloway; jumpers, Olympic medalists, and brothers Con and Patrick Leahy; steeplechaser Pat Flynn; and high jumper Mike Sweeney.

In the years before World War II, a group of Irish American strongman, known as “the Irish Whales,” dominated the throwing events in track and field, which generally included the hammer throw, shot put, 56-pound weight throw, and the discus. While this group experienced success in all of these events, the standout event was undeniably the hammer throw. For instance, John Flanagan secured the gold medal in this event in 1900, 1904, and 1908. Matt McGrath clinched gold in 1912, along with silver medals in 1908 and 1924, and Patrick Ryan won the gold in 1920. The remarkable achievements of these Irish American athletes also extended beyond the hammer throw, with various gold, silver, and bronze medal performances in the shot put, the 56-pound weight throw, and the discus.

As Christopher Dowd has observed about sports achievements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, “Everywhere the public looked, the Irish were dominating sports.”^[58]

*   *   *

Irish Americans in the late 20th and early 21st centuries may not enjoy the degree of dominance in sports that they once did, but they continue to be well represented. Examples include NFL quarterbacks and Super Bowl champions John Elway and Tom Brady, tennis greats Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan, baseball shortstop Derek Jeter, basketball point guard Jason Kidd, world champion pro surfer Kelly Slater, national champion skier Ryan Max Riley, and legendary golfer Ben Hogan.^[59]

Corned Beef and Cabbage, and Green Beer

Perhaps no other ethnic holiday is as enthusiastically celebrated by people with no particular connection to the heritage in question as is Saint Patrick’s Day. It is a holiday that originated in Ireland as a religious feast day in honor of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who, legend has it, brought Christianity to pagan Ireland in the 5th century. In the 17th century, Saint Patrick’s Day became an official Church holiday in the Catholic Church (and even in the Anglican, Orthodox, and Lutheran Churches).^[60]

But the manifestation of Saint Patrick’s Day in the United States has transcended its religious origins to become a general celebration of Irish culture and identity. Indeed, the remarkable thing about it is its general public appeal. Every year on March 17th, countless Americans, whether they are Irish or not, wear green to celebrate the Irish, and some, if they find it on a menu, may even eat corned beef and cabbage, an Irish American adaptation of a dish from old Ireland that consisted of bacon and cabbage. And on Saint Patrick’s Day, bars often serve green beer, and many cities host lively Saint Patrick’s Day parades. Everyone is Irish for a day.

Irish Chic

As Jay Dolan has aptly observed, “The Irish in America are a prototypical immigrant success story.”^[61] But it was a success that did not come overnight. They came desperately poor and were despised as the lowest of the low. They were stereotyped at various times in the most negative of ways as ape-like, brutish, clannish, crude, hot-headed, ignorant, ill-mannered, impudent, impulsive, lazy, narrow-minded, superstitious, unclean, uncivilized, violent, and vulgar. If some of the stereotypes ever fit an individual Irishman, Irish Americans as a whole defied their detractors’ judgments. They worked their way up the social ladder with determination and grit, and their descendants became firefighters, police officers, skilled tradespeople, journalists, teachers, academics, doctors, acclaimed writers, actors, film directors, artists, athletes, lawyers, union leaders, senators, governors, and even presidents.

Even as late as the 1960s, by which time all of the above achievements were already in evidence, many Irish Americans were not entirely secure about their status. As Peter Quinn reflects,

The Irish in America—at least the Irish I grew up with—were still in the defensive crouch they’d arrived in during the Famine, still sensitive to the distrust and dislike of real America, to the suspicions about our loyalty and supposed proclivity to raucous misbehavior. We were forever reminding ourselves—and the rest of America—how many Irish fought with Washington, how many died at Antietam, and how many won the Congressional Medal of Honor, a litany of self justification that implicitly accepted that it wasn’t enough we’d been here for over a century.

Even J.F.K.’s election as president didn’t entirely settle the matter.^[62]

However, by the time of the 1990 U.S. census, 44 million people, or 18 percent of the nation, identified as Irish, far more than would be expected by the combined total of Irish immigration plus natural increase. This is perhaps explained by the fact that “down through the decades the Irish intermarried with other ethnic groups, most often of the same religion,” which “increased the number of individuals with Irish ancestry.” In the 1990 census, “individuals with … dual (or multiple) ethnic heritages could choose one or the other as their own.” Given a choice, people often chose Irish as their primary identification. It turns out that by the late 1990s, the traits most closely associated with the Irish were positive—gregariousness, wit, and charm. Moreover, identifying as Irish positions one as the underdog who can then lay claim to the Irish success story as one’s own.^[63]

Today the number of Americans claiming at least partial Irish ancestry has decreased as a proportion of the total population, mainly because other ethnic groups have grown more quickly over the past thirty years at the same time that new immigrant groups, primarily Hispanic and Asian, have entered the country. Still, in the 2020 U.S. Census, “Irish” (either alone or in combination with other ancestries) was the third most frequently reported ethnicity, with about 9.5% of survey respondents (or roughly 31 million) claiming it.

Of the various immigrant groups—besides the English—that have contributed to the weaving of the U.S. tapestry, the Germans and the Irish came here in the greatest numbers and have been here the longest. Often bitter rivals, the descendants of these two groups have shaped the country in innumerable ways.

But between the two, it seems to be the Irish who have embraced their ethnic identity most proudly and most steadfastly into the 21st century. To understand why, we might look to the contingencies of history. Irish Americans, despite facing their own challenges, had no reason to perform a “Great Disappearing Act” in the face of either of the world wars, as German Americans felt compelled to do. And so, two hundred years after the Great Migration and many generations removed from Ireland, for millions of Americans ’tis chic to be Irish.

Chapter 6 Study Guide/Discussion Questions

Activity 6.1

After reading subsections 1–3 of the chapter, answer and discuss the following questions with one or more fellow readers.

1.  In what way(s) might the label Irish have been confusing or ambiguous in 19th century America?
2. Identify the major push and pull factors that drove Irish migration to the United States in the 1800s.
3. Describe a typical early 19th century Irish immigrant’s life and work.
4. What prejudices did Irish immigrants face from the native-born? What fears did the native-born harbor about the Irish? What role did religion play native-born prejudice towards the Irish?

Activity 6.2

Based on your understanding of subsection 4 of the chapter, “Green Power Rising,” answer and discuss the following questions with one or more fellow readers.

1. In what ways did the Irish defy the prejudices and the stereotypes that the nativists had tried to ascribe to them?
2. Describe the advantages that the Irish seemed to have that made them good at politics. How did the Irish work their way into the system? (Describe the process.)
3. Why did the Irish reject the Republican Party and align themselves with the Democratic Party? Contrast their political calculations with those of the German, especially the Forty-Eighters (see Chapter 5).
4. Explain what Tammany Hall was and how it worked as a political machine.
5. Why is the historical reputation of Tammany Hall somewhat ambiguous? (In what ways was its reputation bad, and in what was it good?)

Activity 6.3

Based on your understanding of subsection 5 of the chapter, “Growing Up Catholic,” answer and discuss the following questions with one or more fellow readers.

1. How did Catholicism influence the daily lives of Irish Catholics in urban neighborhoods during the mid-20th century?
2. What evidence do you find that illustrates the central importance of the parish in the lives of Irish Catholics?
3. What evidence do you find that the everyday practices of Catholicism sometimes differed across ethnic groups?
4. How did the American religious environment as well as Catholicism itself change in the latter decades of the 20th century?

Activity 6.4

Based on your understanding of subsection 6 of the chapter, “Contributions to Literature and Popular Culture,” engage with the following tasks and share your results with one or more fellow readers.

 1.  Create a table like the one below, and fill in the missing cells. (If the text has not covered everything necessary to complete the table, you may wish to do an Internet search for more information.)

2.  Listen to the musical selections in the subsection on “Popular Music.” What is your opinion of the music? Is there any particular group that you would consider listening to more of? If so, which one(s), and why?

3.  Among the Hollywood actors and directors, TV sitcom entertainers, or stand up comedians mentioned in the text who have Irish ancestry, highlight one individual that you might like to know more about. Do some further research on the person and discuss in more depth the significance the individual in the entertainment industry?

4.  What factors contributed to the ability of Irish Americans to dominate American sports in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? How did attitudes towards sports evolve in Anglo America, and how did the changing attitudes benefit the general public’s image of Irish Americans?

Activity 6.5

Based on your understanding of the last two subsections of the chapter, answer and discuss the following questions with one or more fellow readers.

1. Explain the significance of Saint Patrick’s Day in American life and describe some typical events associated with Saint Patrick’s Day. What does the prominence of the holiday say about the social status of Irish Americans today?
2. Why is the story of the Irish in America widely considered to be one of remarkable success? Why might it be that Irish Americans continue to embrace and Irish identity, while German Americans have, by comparison, virtually lost theirs?

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