This month, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m going to write about Irish things, or more accurately, Irish-American things since the holiday is really an American one. Regardless of the celebration’s origins as an Irish Catholic day of prayer, it is now a day when Americans come out to celebrate being Irish or at least pretending to have the capacity to drink mythic quantities of green beer. And the Irish, well, they come out to watch the Americans. Even in Ireland.
I spent a semester in Ireland in the mid-80s and my classmates and I were astonished to see ads all over Dublin advertising a contest – win a trip to New York for St. Patrick’s Day. We wondered why on Earth people would want to go to New York for St. Patrick’s Day when they were already in the capital of Ireland.
“Why would ye want to stay here?” a young man called from across the street. (Apparently we were wondering pretty loudly.) In any case, when the great day finally arrived, my host family was quite anxious to come out for the parade in Dublin. Pretty much every entry in the parade was American. And many American tourists were out with green hair, looking like aliens and drinking mythic quantities of green beer. The Irish came to watch them. I kind of lost my taste for green beer after that.
I don’t know the lucky Dubliners who won the trip to New York that year, but I do know that they traveled in better style than the Irish ancestors of the New Yorkers who were throwing the party. The biggest years for Irish immigration to New York were 1846-51, the potato famine years, and even for the wealthy, the journey across the ocean was dangerous and disagreeable. For the poor—and those were the ones coming in those years—the voyage could be desperately cruel. Ships had always sailed during the spring and summer months, but in the years of starvation, vessels would leave even in the worst of weather, and without even basic provisions. I think it’s pretty difficult for modern Americans to imagine the overcrowding, cold, filth and illness the emigrants endured. But you’ll get a pretty good idea if you realize that many the emigrants paid to travel in the holds of former slave ships.
In future articles, we’ll explore the journey in more detail, as well as what the Irish found waiting for them when they arrived in the “land of opportunity.” By 1851, so many Irish had emigrated to New York that the population of the city was 26% Irish.
Happy March, everyone!
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Most of the statistics in this article come from Edward Laxton’s The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to America (Holt,1998)
Oh, my dream is to go to Ireland and sit in a pub and listen to Irish people talk! Not so sure about the FOOD in Ireland but I do love Irish soda bread…
diane
I don’t think you need to worry too much about the food – we have had some wonderful meals in restaurants in Ireland. The food my host family served at home everyday was a little difficult to handle at times, though, especially when they tried to make “American” food for me. They once made me a pizza with anchovy paste and pickles on it. Fortunately, it was very small! They ate a lot of boiled potatoes, which was fine with me. On Sundays we had roasted AND boiled potatoes!
Angela’s Ashes depressed me, but it taught me much about the soul of the Irish. We Americans talk of green beer and stew, the potato famine and staunch Irish Catholicism, but our bacchanalia surrounding such ‘cultural celebrations’ can’t possibly touch the true spirit of the Irish.
Great post!
My husband is Irish, & I am sure he would love to have a green beer in one of the pubs.
He would NOT want to have a green beer. It’s the crummy beer. They leave the good stuff regular beer-colored! 🙂
What an interesting post. I haven’t read specifically about the Irish coming to America, but I have read of the difficulties immigrants had to endure on their way to this country. It’s amazing any of them survived.
I look forward to watching your blog this month.
Cheryl
I am half Irish and am so proud of that. It has always been my great desire to travel to Ireland one day. My daughter is obsessed with anything Irish. What a fun feature! I look forward to all of your upcoming posts!
Don’t let go of that desire! Ireland is a beautiful country with friendly people everywhere. I found it so refreshing just to look at things everywhere I went. England is a wonderful place to visit, too, but not as beautiful.