Attack of The Killer Potatoes

By Seth
2/16/11










Pretend that you are an Irish Catholic in the 1820’s and 30’s. Now you are poised with a terrible choice. You could stay in your home run by the British who don’t believe in your freedom or you could go to the promised land of America ran by the Americans who also don’t believe in your freedom. What would you choose? Whatever you chose is the wrong answer, and now you are forced to suffer for it. Okay stop pretending. It was a challenge just to survive for the Irish! The Irish certainly trapped in a terrible situation, but which life would have been easier for the Irish.

Living in Ireland

Ireland was not a happy place for the people who were living there. After the Irish were left impoverished from fighting in the Napoleanic Wars the Irish Catholics were suffering from the event called “The Great Hunger” which in an old Irish language was called “An Gorta Mor.”(Irish Immigration) One third of the population of Ireland was dependent on potatoes for food because the country was exporting a lot of wheat, barley, cows, and sheep. This left the people of Ireland potatoes which could grow in the bad rocky soil of Ireland. Then the potatoes became infected with a disease known as potato blight. The potatoes of Ireland would not be safe for five years. It is said to be “One of the most severe famines of the modern era.”(O’Neil, 8) The beggars had became as thin as skeletons. These very unfortunate people could either eat, get sick, and die, or not eat, get sick, and die. Although that is the simple way of summarizing it, another way to say it is, either way they get sick, can’t work, make no money, get evicted, and die in a ditch somewhere. Many people would try to get caught for stealing red handed. Why? Because the poor , poor people thought that their chances in prison would be better than freedom. It was better for beggars who lived close to a town because they could find other resources. Because of the Potato famine around 1,000,000 people died and about the same number immigrated to other countries. In fact the Irish census of 1841 had counted 6,552,385, but it was claimed by the commisioners that without a famine the number would be 9,018,799. The Irish population today is a mere half of what it was before the famine. In addition to this awful time in Irish history their British masters still expected no hault in exporting to other countries so many Irish goods.
Another reason why many of the Irish were suffering so much in their own country was because they were Catholic. In Ireland the Catholic people weren’t allowed to own land. They also weren’t permitted to be members of the joined parliament of the Irish and the British, and without a single Catholic in the parlaiment there was no one to look out for the Catholics. Then the British had persecuted catholics simply because they were Catholic. The Protestant British believed that the Catholic Irish were a bunch of sub-human cretins.(Immigration: The Irish) This is why Ireland was such a disaster and a very small miserable island at the time.


Living in America

Many of the Irish people thought they could get away from all the famine, poverty, neglect, and the intolerance of their British Masters, but they discovered that they would still live a hard life. They figured that the promised land of America would give them a much better life than Ireland, and the British made the journey cost just a few shillings for the long voyage to the free land of America. These people were very tempted to get out of their country during this hard time, but soon they would realize what they were walking into. The boat ride cost a few shillings for a reason. The ships were extremely crowded and the living conditions on these ships were very, very, poor, so poor that they were called “Coffin Ships.”(Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th Century) In addition the unlucky Irishmen were sad that they would never see their home country again. No matter how terrible the living conditions in Ireland were, they would still want to see it again. After that they realized that some Americans didn’t like immigrants. But before that you should know about this. Many of the Irish in America were only peasents. There was about 2,000,000 Irish immigrants in the first decade. The American newcomers had no supplies with them to start a buisness and\or a farm, and so they started their American lives from scratch.(Immigration: The Irish) They became the lowest class in America. Forced into shantytowns and crammed in shacks they lived on. Roads that were nothing but dirt paths, and they would turn into ditches after heavy rainfall. In the state of New York, eight out of ten Irish babies would die.(Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th Century) In fact in the 1940’s most of New England was occupied by Irish.
Another obstacle that the Irishmen had to try to overcome was “No Irish need apply.” What is this? This is what the help wanted signs for jobs would say. One Irish person was very sad about what he had found was in store for him in America. This person said “Our position in America is one of shame and poverty.” The American newspaper, The Chicago Post seems to agree with this Irish person. The Chicago Post wrote “The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses, scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that if you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic, putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country.”(Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th Century) Yet, the Irish immigrants still kept coming on their coffin ships. Between the years 1820 and 1880 about 3.5 million Irish Catholics immigrated to America. These so called “sub-humans” suffering through a hard time nevertheless had held their own and remained determined, and because of this a newspaper stated, “The Irish have become more Americanized than Americans.”
With the ever expanding and ever advancing America there was a need to build access to newly colonized places. People settling in these new places needed supplies. The Irish got their work by doing just that. The Irish would build railroads in their desperation. Irish women would work for industries and be in front of machines all day, or become the caretakers of children. Also it wasn’t just the Americans who didn’t appreciate the Irish there was also the black slaves. Yes, the slaves and Irish had a mutual hatred for each other.
Irish Catholics had to keep their heads held high for the unimaginable intolerance for their religious differences, but sadly they couldn’t even have that. Many Catholic hating Americans would start riots. In fact in Philidelphia there was a case where two Catholic churches were burned down and one Catholic school was burned down in a burning. 20 people had been killed. The New York mayor said to archbishop Hughes “Do you fear that some of your churches will be burned?” The archbishop responded by saying, “No, but I fear that some of yours will be. We can protect our own.”(Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th Century)
The new wave of Immigrants had sparked the “Nativist” movement. The nativist movement was the forming of political parties whose goals were to stop allowing more immigrants into the country and to make their rights lesser than the ones already there. These parties had names like the American Republican, Nativist, and the “Know Nothings.” The last one is really called the American party, but called the Know Nothings because when they were asked about their party they would say “I don’t know.” Many governors were in some of these parties. This is why America was equally as terrible as Ireland at the time for an Irish Catholic.


President Kennedy

In 1850 a Catholic man in America named Orwestes Brownson had stated, “Out of these narrow lanes, dirty roads, damp cellars, and suffocating garrets, will come forth some of the noblest sons of our country, whom she will delight and own and honor.” An Irish Catholic person did become the President of the United States President Kennedy was the first Catholic president and so far is the only. The Kennedys being Catholic actually was a pull factor to many of the voters. Even Richard Nixon, his opponent agreed. Nixon said, “I was getting it from both ends: Republican Catholics were being urged to vote for Kennedy because he was of their religion; and Republican Protestents were being urged to vote for him to prove that they were not biased against Catholics.”(Carty) Nixon had also said, “Kennedy’s key associates were pushing the religious issue, seeing to it that it stayed squarely in the center of the campain, and even accusing me of religious bigotry.”(Carty) On the other hand some people didn’t like Catholics, and others thought that Kennedy would let the Pope run the country. He didn’t. John F. Kennedy actually did a few pretty good things. He created the Peace Corps. In addition he was a big supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. President Kennedy would be outraged whenever a supporter of desegregation was killed. Some people hated President Kennedy because he was against segregation.

Conclusion


The Irish who stayed in Ireland had to survive deadly potatoes, evil British masters, and getting evicted if by some chance they owned land. The Irish who immigrated had to survive people who started riots, living in shanty towns, and “Know Nothings” who sought to limit their rights. Yet in the end the American Irish rose up from the rubble and one even became president, but the population today is half of what it was. This shows that America was the better choice for an Irish Catholic.






Bibliography

Carty, Thomas J. A Catholic in the White House New York: PalgraveMacmillan,
2008
“Immigration the Journey to America” Oracle Think Quest Education Foundation
http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Irish.html
“Irish Immigrants in America during the 19th Century” www.Kinsella.org.
http://www.kinsella.org/history/histira.htm
“Irish Immigration” Assumption http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/irish/overview.html
O’neil, Joseph R. The Irish Potato Famine Minnesota: ABDO, 2009
Jones, Rebbeca C. The President Has Been Shot! New York: Troll, 1996