To the editor: Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone! It’s a day to celebrate being Irish or wanting to be Irish. We celebrate what we have brought to this stew of nationalities we call America.
We celebrate the Irish in the arts, literature, food and sciences. We Irish should remember our past, however. Most of our ancestors fled famine (the Great Hunger 1845-1852) in Ireland and ventured to a new world. Two million of us came; 85,000 more of us died along the way. The ships that brought us came to be called “coffin ships.”
Once here, we took what work we could find. We dug the ditches that became the nation’s early canal system and later worked the coal mines. We laid the tracks for the nation’s railroads.
Nearly as soon as we arrived in America, we were confronted with the hatred of some native-born people. In 1849, a secret organization called “the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner” coalesced dedicated to “Temperance, Liberty, and Protestantism” — a populous, xenophobic, nativism. We went where there was work but found a cool reception. In Pennsylvania’s anthracite region, towns like Centralia, Shamokin, Mount Carmel and Pottsville plastered their places of business with signs that read: “No Irish need apply!” In American newspapers, we were labeled “invaders” or “Papists” because we brought our Catholic religion with us. One political party, the American party (aka as the Know Nothing Party ... yes, I am serious, the proper response to outsiders about the party was to claim that one “knew nothing” about the party), particularly lambasted us because we were immigrants and Catholic to boot. They spoke of a golden age free of immigrants forgetting in their rhetoric that there was a time when nearly all of them came to America either because of the promise of this new land or out of fear of what they left behind.
Change came, but slowly. During the Civil War, we donned Union blue and fought to hold together a nation that had warmed but little to our presence. Thirty thousand of us paid with our lives, but the bloodshed brought a grudging respect that grew over time.
Today, it’s great to be Irish; yesterday, not so much. Today, other immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti and Mexico hope to one day be Americans but find themselves labeled “invaders, rapists, drug dealers,” and the like. Yesterday’s labels of hate updated to the modern day aimed at would-be Americans. Perhaps we could, while celebrating yesterday’s immigrants, remember with charity as well today’s?
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.