Happy Saint Patrick's Day! In past years, I have written about the religious nature of Saint Patrick's Day. Patrick was a remarkable missionary and a hero of the Christian faith. There are many blogs today celebrating that aspect of the day.
There is another aspect of Saint Patrick's Day that I will tackle today. Saint Patrick's Day is largely an immigrants holiday. I saw an interview with Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains saying how he preferred to spend Saint Patrick's Day in the US. In Ireland, it was largely a religious holiday. In the US, Saint Patrick's Day is a party. In the US, Saint Patrick's Day is more a celebration of Irish heritage than it is about the saint. It demonstrates the impact that a group of immigrants can have on a culture and a nation.
Irishmen were among the first colonists in the New World. They came to the New World in various employs of the British government and venture corporations. Later, Irishmen came to America to escape the oppressive and difficult life of Ireland. Ireland was ruled by a landed gentry that was British or appointed by the crown. The aristocracy of Ireland was thoroughly loyal to the crown and far removed from the majority of the Emerald Isle. The disparities became blatantly obvious when the primary food crop for the poor was destroyed.
Around 1845, the potato crop of Ireland was destroyed by blight. A large portion of the poor in Ireland relied upon the potato. To make matters worse, Ireland experienced a severe winter in 1846-47 that exacerbated the problem. The resulting famine added to the many points of conflict between the Upper and Lower classes. The lower class was mostly composed of Catholics that faced discrimination under British law. They were not fairly represented in Parliament. And while the poor starved in the streets, the wealthy ate sumptuously. There were other food crops in Ireland, but they were most exported to the foreign markets and overseas British colonies. The overall result was that over a million Irish died of malnutrition over a ten year period. Another million left Ireland to settle in the US, Australia, and other friendly nations. The disparities and injustices that occurred during the famine also contributed to the growing Republican movements that would lead to Irish freedom.
The response to the famine in the US was varied. When the Irish Famine began, the US was involved in a war with Mexico. Funds were raised across the US, and the first international relief effort by the United States was mounted. The sloop-of-war USS Jamestown was disarmed and filled with food.
The Irish that came off the boats during the Great Famine were impoverished and malnourished. They dressed in worn and outdated clothing. Newspaper editorials portrayed the waves of Irish arriving on American shores as animalistic, backwards, uneducated, and immoral. They looked funny and worse yet, they were Catholic. Helping the Irish in Ireland was fine, but America didn't want any more Irish in America. Eventually, American ports started to close to ships coming from Ireland. The Irish were berated and belittled. Amazingly the caustic caricatures remain to this day (it's okay to use comic, demeaning Irish stereotypes in Saint Patrick's Day graphics on the local news, but they wouldn't dare wear black face or use minstrel show figures during February). This is an actual cartoon from Harper's Weekly, the Journal of Civilization.
The Irish were forced into the poorer districts of the cities, but they banded together. Before long the Irish were the business owners, politicians, and even in charge of organized crime! The Irish took the jobs that no one else would take. They loaded cotton bales on the Mississippi, a job considered too hazardous for slaves. They worked the bayous of Louisiana, mined coal in the Appalachians, and built the railroads. The Irish fought on both sides of the Civil War and rebuilt the nation in Reconstruction. The Irish that settled in the US were transformed by America and also transformed America. Saint Patrick's Day is a celebration of how much the Irish have contributed to the fabric of the United States. It is also a promise to immigrants today and for the future.
My great-great-grandfather came from Ireland during the Great Famine. He settled in Georgia just in time for the Civil War. Like many of the Irish he became a part of the fabric of America. The history of the United States is a history of the immigrant finding a home. Saint Patrick's Day in the United States is testimony of the impact immigrants can have on the nation.
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