Irish Immigrants in Boston

Irish Immigrants in Boston

The life of Irish immigrants in Boston was one of poverty and discrimination. The religiously centered culture of the Irish has along with their importance on family has allowed the Irish to prosper and persevere through times of injustice. Boston's Irish immigrant population amounted to a tenth of its population. Many after arriving could not find suitable jobs and ended up living where earlier generations had resided. This attributed to the 'invisibility' of the Irish.

Much of the very early migration had been heavily male, but during the famine years, migration was largely a family affair. Families were arriving serially in ?chain? migration while others suffered high mortality rates in these years. The Irish were the first to practice ?chain or serial migration? on a large scale. During the famine years males still outnumbered women in migration numbers but not by a large margin. However in the post famine years and especially after 1880 more women came from Ireland than males. The reason for this was that women were always more deprived of work than men in Ireland, and in the post-famine years the position of women got exponentially worse. In Ireland, contrary to what was happening in the United States, women did not live longer than men. The lives of immigrant Irish women were not easy, but much better than a life back in Ireland.

In the 1850?s through the 1870?s 45% of all Irish immigrants were persons in the 15-24 age group with gender evenly balanced. But in the 1880?s to 1920 that same age group made up about 60% of all Irish immigrants. This social class was young and could adapt to working in the harsh conditions. Immigrants who arrived alone often eventually married either someone from the immigrant community in the area. With each passing year women began taking up a higher and higher percentage of Irish immigrants. By 1921 women outnumbered men 2:1. These women were overwhelmingly concentrated in domestic service. At the turn of the century more than half of all Irish immigrant women were servants. These Irish women learned American housekeeping through first-hand experience, living in the home of the family they served.

The Irish usually tended to support the Democratic Party rather than support the Republican Party. Most Irish had little sympathy for slaves because they feared that if th...

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...cause of the Irish church and family.

Bibliography:

Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies. 2004

Daniels, Roger. Coming to America. New York, NY. HarperCollins Publishers. 1990

Glazer, Nathan. Beyond the Melting Pot. Boston, MA. The M.I.T. and Harvard University press. 1963

Handlin, Oscar. Boston?s Immigrants: A Study in Acculturation. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University press. 1959

Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas. The Irish American Family Album. New York, NY. Oxford University press. 1995

Howard, Brett. Boston: A Social History. New York, NY. Hawthorn Books, INC. 1976

Laxton, Edward. The Famine Ships. New York, NY. Henry Holt and Company, INC. 1996

Nichols, Guild. ?The Irish Influx?. North End Boston. http://www.northendboston.com/history3.htm.

Date checked 2-15-05

O'Connor, Thomas H. The Boston Irish: A Political History. Boston, MA. Northeastern University Press, 1995.

?Timeline: 1850-1949.? Boston Family History. http://www.bostonfamilyhistory.com/ir_1850.html

Date checked 2-10-05

?Irish Immigration?. Spartacus Educational. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAEireland.htm.

Date checked 2-10-05