Irish Immigration

1. Irish Immigration

2. The Potato Famine in Ireland • By 1847, the potato famine had reached full strength and much of the population of Ireland was malnourished and weak. • This is an account written by a visitor to Ireland who notes much of the misery he witnessed. “We have just returned from a visit to Ireland, whither we had gone in order to ascertain with our own eyes the truth of the reports daily publishing of the misery existing there. We have found everything but too true; the accounts are not exaggerated--they cannot be exaggerated-- nothing more frightful can be conceived. The scenes we have witnessed during our short stay at Skibbereen, equal any thing that has been recorded by history, or could be conceived by the imagination. Famine, typhus fever, dysentery, and a disease hitherto unknown, are sweeping away the whole population. The poor are not the only sufferers: fever is spreading to every class, and even the rich are becoming involved in the same destruction.”

3. The Exodus Begins • By the middle of the 19th Century, thousands of Irish immigrants were arriving in the U.S. in an effort to escape the devastating famine in Ireland. • The excerpt here deals with the initial stages of the Irish flight. • “The splendid emigrant ships that ply between Liverpool and New York, and which have sufficed in previous years to carry to the shores of America an Irish emigration, amounting on the average to 250,000 souls per annum, have, during the present spring, been found insufficient to transport to the States the increasing swarms of Irish who have resolved to try in the New World to gain the independence which has been denied them in the old.”

4. The Waves of Immigration • The following graphs and maps demonstrate the overwhelming number of Irish immigrants coming into the U.S. as compared to immigration from other European nations. • Note also the sharp spike in Irish immigration that corresponded directly with the Irish potato famine that began in 1847 and continued for several years thereafter. • Note the wide dispersion of Irish immigrants across the country by 1870, reflecting the tremendous demographic impact of Irish migration to the United States.

8. Nativist Response to Irish Immigration • The influx of large numbers of Irish Catholics during the 19th century disturbed many conservative Americans who viewed the ethnic shift in American society as a potentially damaging phenomenon. • Many publications argued that the Irish would place their loyalty to the Catholic Church above their loyalty to the U.S. • Also, the 1856 platform of the briefly influential "Know-Nothing" party stressed the need for native born Americans to take charge.