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Irish
Contents
Irish Immigration to New York City >The Irish at 97 Orchard
Street > 19th Century Dublin > Irish Immigrants in the Workplace
> Irish Immigrants and the Catholic Church in America > Tammany
Hall and Irish Political Participation > Irish Nationalism >
Irish Fraternal and County Organizations > 19th Century Health
Care and the Immigrant Irish > The Irish Wake
Irish Nationalism
Like immigrants from other countries, Irish emigrants rarely thought
in terms of nationality in Ireland, but instead identified most
strongly with their county, town, or parish. Most rural Irish peasants,
in fact, had never been more than a few miles from home before embarking
on their journey to Queenstown or Liverpool to get the ship to America.
For many, it was only when they came into contact with other Irish
immigrants in New York that they began to have a sense of a broader
Irish ethnic identity. The presence of other immigrant groups, discrimination
from nativist New Yorkers, membership in the Catholic Church, involvement
in Irish nationalist causes, and reading Irish newspapers helped
to strengthen immigrants' Irishness and ensured their continued
identification with the "Ould Sod."1
The most public expression of Irish identity in the city during
the 1860s and 1870s was the annual St. Patrick's Day parade and
celebration. While always an important event for the Irish community,
March 17 became even more visible during this period due to the
rising power of Irish Tammany politicians and a renewed enthusiasm
for radical Irish nationalist causes by both working-class and affluent
Irish New Yorkers. Tammany celebrations were symbols of the political
freedom the Irish had in America to observe their holiday, openly
waving Fenian banners and the Irish flag. As such, the day became
an opportunity to express both Irish and American identity and pride.
In addition, the day served as a powerful reminder to the city's
elite of growing Irish political strength. Most importantly, the
day served to unite the Irish community in the city under one national
and religious banner, especially in the face of hostile attacks
by nativist and reformist groups.2
Through such efforts, immigrants and their children did begin to
identify themselves as "Irish" and "Irish American."
At the same time, however, they maintained their sense of being
Dubliners, Corkmen, or Kerrymen within the Irish community. For
example, members of the same parish back in Ireland often intermarried
and settled in the same neighborhoods in Irish sections of the city;
employers and foremen hired men from the same county or kinship
network; men formed cultural and benevolent societies based on their
home counties; employers and foremen hired men from the same county
or kinship network; and gangs fought rivals from different counties
or towns. Therefore, the sense of identity for the Irish in New
York changed according to context, place, and time.
As typical Irish immigrants, Joseph and Bridget Moore might have
had a similar
changing sense of identity, based on where they were living and
their length of time in America. For example, when they were still
living in the Sixth Ward, a predominantly Irish area, Joseph would
probably have thought of himself as a Dubliner and might perhaps
have sought out the company of others from Dublin. Conversely, as
an Irish family in an overwhelmingly German neighborhood, the Moores
would likely have felt their national identity most strongly while
living at 97 Orchard Street. In 1865, for example, the Irish made
up only ten percent of the population in the tenth ward (3139 out
of 31,537); ten years later, that percentage had dropped to just
under six (2435 out of 41,747).
The Fenian Movement
Many Irish immigrants in America joined their local Fenian Brotherhood
and Sisterhood as a way of becoming involved in Irish nationalist
activities. The Fenian Brotherhood was founded in 1858 in New York
City by John O'Mahony as a sister organization to the Irish Revolutionary
Brotherhood (IRB.) The Fenians and IRB aimed to rid Ireland of English
rule using American money and men to promote uprising. In the latter
part of 1865, Dublin made international headlines when the British
government uncovered a Fenian plot to promote an insurrection in
Ireland. Most Fenians were displaced peasants who moved into towns,
became part of the petit bourgeoisie, and surveys of the membership
of the Irish Republican Brotherhood have indicated that the movement
did not have widespread influence among the poorer classes of Ireland.
Many of the conspirators were returned Irishmen who had immigrated
to the United States in the previous decades. While no evidence
has been found to support whether Joseph Moore was involved with
the Fenians, given his background it is a distinct possibility.3
In the "Dublin Correspondence" column of the Irish American,
dated September 9, 1865, the author wrote from Dublin that "Indeed,
rumors are afloat that the numbers of emigrants already arrived
from America, with the intent to aid in the Fenian movement, are
to be reckoned in the hundreds; some accounts place them as high
as two or three thousand." While the excitement of this claim
embellishes the involvement of returned expatriates, many of the
Fenians arrested had been living in the United States or Australia.
There existed an active back and forth between Nationalists living
in Ireland and immigrants abroad who provided the financial backing
to the movement. While it is difficult to separate the merely nostalgic
from the fundamentally committed, Fenian causes held wide support
in the United States. In the June 26, 1865 edition of the Irish
American, 29 Fenian clubs in New York City alone posted announcements
of weekly meetings.4
On September 15, 1865, the Dublin police arrested a group of Fenians
who were plotting an uprising on September 20, the anniversary of
Robert Emmet's execution. Most were associated with the Nationalist
publication the Irish People and among the arrested was Jeremiah
O'Donovan Rossa, the publisher. One of the arrested on September
15 was a man by the name of Michael Moore, whose crime was making
pikes to be used in arming the peasantry. On November 11, more conspirators
were arrested, including James Stephens, who had founded the Irish
Republican Brotherhood in 1858. Stephens would escape from jail
during his trial and flee to Paris.5
The Fenians were active on this side of the Atlantic as well. In
April 1866 a dissident faction conspired to promote hostility between
England and the United States by attacking Canada in hopes of benefiting
the cause of Irish independence. The invasion failed miserably,
however, when the British and American navies cooperated in intercepting
a shipment of arms, and U.S. troops forced Fenians gathering in
Maine to disperse. The Fenians survived in the United States until
1870s when they were superseded by a new, more serious and determined
organization, Clan na Gael.6
1 Kerby Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus
to North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985)
2 Michael Cronin and Daryl Adair, The Wearing of the Green: A
History of St. Patrick's Day (New York: Routledge Press, 2002);
Miller, Emigrants and Exiles.
3 Miller, Emigrants and Exiles.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
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