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Emigration
At the first signs that something was about to get terribly wrong in the first decade of the nineteenth century several Irish decided to emigrate. In general these early emigrants were literate or even well-educated, healthy and well-fed singles or young couples from the north and east. Several of them emigrated to Britain, while others set sail to the United States of America.
For the booming economies of Britain and the United States these extra labourers came just when they were needed. Without too much hassle the emigrants were accepted in their new homelands and found work in the factories and in the road and railway works.
In the first year of the Great Famine, when the nearing disaster became obvious, well-to-do families from other parts of Ireland followed. Most of these emigrants were barely affected by the beginning food shortage and had managed to put money aside for the passage. The economic value of these second wave emigrants was less when compared with the early emigrants, but nevertheless they also managed to settle in the receiving countries. By then the United States had become the favourite destination, followed by Canada and Australia.
They shared their enthusiasm with relatives left behind in Ireland and within a year the number of emigrants rocketed.
Coffin Ships
Irish Emigrants on the Mersey, Pictorial Times, 6 June 1846.
(source: Views of the Famine)
With the number of emigrants the prices for the passage increased. People sold everything but the clothes they wore to gather enough money for the passage. Even heirlooms as Claddagh rings were cashed.
Throughout the Great Famine Ireland remained an exporter of corn and meat (please take a moment to register this bizarre fact) and when a tenant abandoned his land the land could be used to grow cash crops or for cattle raising. Some landlords persuaded hesitating tenants to emigrate by offering so-called arrival money. Needless to point out that this promised amount was rarely waiting across the Atlantic.
Not only landowners, but also ship owners cashed in on the situation. Old and unseaworthy ships were deployed to meet the need. Obviously this was not without danger for the passengers nor the ticket seller. Denis Mahon, the owner of Strokestown Park House, was shot because he hired unseaworthy ships.
The ships were overcrowded and rarely provided sufficient food and sanitary facilities. The weakened passenger were an easy prey for diseases brought from Ireland. It was rather rule than exception that 20 to 40% of the passengers died during the passage made by these so-called coffin ships.
No Irish Need Apply
Obviously the diseases brought from Ireland were also endangering the population of the receiving countries. In May 1847 Canada appointed Grosse Ile as quarantine area. At the end of the month 40 ships were waiting for permission to debark their hungry, weakened and ill passengers. When quarantine was withdrawn, in October of the same year, 5300 emigrants had perished on the Saint Lauwrence River.
The United States, once a nation welcoming immigrants, also took measures and proclaimed two severe Passenger Acts in 1847 in order to decrease the influx. One of the measures involved raising the fare for the passage. This caused more overcrowded coffin ships offering no facilities or provisions for the passengers what so ever.
The United States also started to sent ships and passengers back.
The only NINA ad for men ever found, New York Times, 25 March 1854.
(source: Richard J. Jensen - No Irish Need Apply)
Public health concerns were not the only motivation for the measures taken by the United States and Canada. Because the immigrants were willing to work for less wages there was a reasonable risk of labour unrest.
There is however an other issue that seldom comes to the surface due to the allegedly good relation between the United States and Ireland. In contrary to the first two waves of Irish immigrants the third wave consisted of poor, physically weak, illiterate farmers and their families, some of which did not even master the English language. Therefore their economic value was nil for the industrialised countries.
The arrival was a bitter disappointment for those who made it to the United States or Canada.
First of all there was no arrival money. Lacking resources for a journey westwards to the agricultural inland the emigrants settled where they had come ashore. Physically too weak to perform hard labour and lacking industrial experiences there were no jobs for the men in the industrialised and urbanised areas of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland. Some men found jobs as street-sweeper or stable boy, but in most families the women and daughters earned the wages as domestic servant.
The song NINA (No Irish Need Apply) suggests that the Irish immigrants were discriminated against in personal ads and on signs in shop windows. Richard J. Jensen however could trace only one newspaper ad with the phrase No Irish Need Apply. He also conclude that the so-called original NINA-signs you can buy occasionally on the Internet must be fake.
Nevertheless the Irish immigrants had a hard time finding jobs and houses. The lived in the margins of the society and were blamed for about everything what went wrong. To protect their homes and families the immigrants formed militias. Several of these militias, such as the Fighting 69th from New York, were later included in the army of the United States.
It took decades for the male emigrants to find more decent jobs as plumber, carpenter or policeman. By then Italian immigrants had taken over the jobs with lower standing. Without a doubt the Saint Patrick's Day parades in the United States contributed to the emancipation of the immigrants in the same way Gay Parades to the emancipation of homosexuals in modern times.
Plastic Paddy
The bond of the Irish emigrants with Ireland remained intense. During the Great Famine most foreign support for the starving Irish came from the United States, thanks to these emigrated Irish. Also after the Great Famine they stayed in touch with their former homeland and, supported by the former leaders of Young Ireland, they took the lead in the funding and founding of the Fenian Movement.
This unique relation was not limited to the first generation of emigrants. The song Old Skibereen tells the story of an Irishman who fled for the hunger and diseases with his two year old son. Twenty years later the boy has become a man, willing to fight for an independent Ireland. Until this day the bond of descendants of Irish emigrants with their ancestral homeland is intense. The Irish Nationalist and Republican movements can pride themselves with a broad supporters base in the United States.
It is a common phenomenon that descendants of emigrants are likely to identify themselves with the culture of their ancestral homeland at the time their forefather emigrated. To put it simple: some of the Irish descendants abroad are more Irish than the Irish. If you are Irish by descent and the Irish call you a Plastic Paddy you have some serious brushing up to do.