Irish Emigration In America

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Irish emigration was not uncommon even in colonial times but it wasn’t until the late 1700s that it really took off. In 1710 anti-Catholic penal laws restricted the religions that Irish people were allowed to be, causing many to flee to America seeking religious freedom. Another major reason for Irish emigration was the fear of natural disasters, mostly famines that were not uncommon in Ireland. The Potato Famine of 1845 brought a massive loss and contamination of crops, causing over a million to starve and another million Irish to emigrate. Those who didn’t emigrate during the famine were flooded with debt they couldn’t overcome, and many chose to emigrate then. To the low class Irish America had been described as a haven with a surplus of …show more content…
Most that fled Ireland wound up in Canada but came down to America through the north- eastern states. The second major wave of Irish emigration began in 1845, when the potato famine ruined millions of crops and starved thousands of families. Most of the emigrants came from western Ireland; most of the farmers that chose to emigrate were very poor and low class. Most of the second wave emigrants lived on the east coast of America, concentrated in New York. The third and final wave began the early 20th centaury as Irish Catholics fought to be independent; Britain fought a war against the Irish Republican Army. During this war period four million Irish chose to emigrate, mostly to America or Australia. England finally chose to establish the Irish Free Sate in 1922, putting emigration to a …show more content…
These were set to limit the population of America that were immigrants in the post World War One society. Many Americans despised immigrants who were willing to work for lower wages because it caused a shortage of well paying jobs for Americans. The hatred for immigrants was often targeted at Irish, specifically those whom were Catholic, there was already a long line of resentment between the two religious group. America was predominantly a Protestant country so Irish Catholic immigrants were often victims of verbal and physical attacks. Many Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic groups were formed, some even went to extremes by killing Irish Catholic immigrants to scare others from immigrating. Catholics were often portrayed as villainous and due to the bigotry many campaigned for catholic school funding to avoid children being exposed to the harsh segregation between Catholics and Protestants. Many stereotypes were created against Catholics, women were targeted as “reckless breeders”, American Protestants started this for fear that eventually the Catholic population would outnumber them. Men were targeted at “always drunk, incessant fighters, and lazy”.

Many Irish immigrants were unskilled worker, looking for jobs they didn’t need to compete for. Most immigrants were willing
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