Escape to exclusion; The anti-Irish discrimination, The How & Why

Escape to exclusion The anti-Irish discrimination The How & Why an historiographical analysis Luuk de Gouw s1555448 Teacher: EC's: 10 27-01-'17 Words: 7237 Subject: History of Migration Grade: 3.0/10 Contents What: Where: Introduction: 3 Hst 1: Protestant fears of the Roman oppressor 4 Hst 2: Apathetic exile or hated foreigner. 8 Hst 3: Boss Tweed as America’s moral Compass 14 Conclusion: 17 Literature and Primary Sources: 18 Introduction: During the period between 1840 and 1916, the at the time British Ireland saw a sharp decline of its population, many of the Irish had left for the United States of America [USA].    L.D. Almeida, ' Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995' (Bloomington, 2001) 19. The USA, which apparently made for a better country than Ireland, in turn saw a changing attitude towards these Irish immigrants in the above mentioned period. On the one hand there was a very welcoming attitude in the early years but as time progressed this attitude changed to a actively anti-Irish one. With this research I will investigate why and how this change happened. I will be doing this with the hypothesis that the evolution towards the anti-Irish attitude consists of three interlocking factors which can be summarized as; religious, nationalistic and economic. These will all be reviewed on the basis of existing literature. The chapters of this paper will be indexed according to the above mentioned possibilities. Per chapter I have searched several catalogues of scientific material using several thematic words like; anti-Irish USA, know-nothing party and anti-Catholicism. In the acquired articles I have also looked at references which I have in turn used to repeat the same process. This has provided me with some existing debates which have enabled me to provide each chapter with a main dichotomy that exemplifies the said debate. For the chapter regarding religion I have asked the question if the anti-Catholic sentiments where a product of ideological differences or if they were the by-product of behaviors which resulted out of a non-protestant faith.   Ibidem 20-22 In chapter two I will research to what extend the global rise of Nationalism in the nineteenth century played a part in the examined situation in the USA. The existing literature mentions that around the two wars the USA fought in the above mentioned period – especially the Mexican-American war – anti-Catholic sentiments had evolved in a specifically anti-Irish distrust in regards to allegiance.   William B. Kurtz, '”let us hear no more Nativism”; The Catholics Press in the Mexican and Civil Wars', Civil war History 60.1 (2014) 13. The investigated debate however seeks to provide clarity if these anti-Irish sentiments was the result of behavior by the Irish themselves as among others Richard Jenkins argues or if these sentiments were a duplicate of the British – English – stance from before (and after) 1776 as authors like Eckard argue.   – Richard Jensen, “ No Irish Need Apply” a myth of victimization, Journal Of Social History vol 36.2, 405-419 (2002) aldaar 410.  – Woodrow Eckard, ' Anti-Irish Job Discrimination circa 1880: Evidence from Major League Baseball' Social Science History vol. 43.4, 407-443(2010) aldaar 408. Finally I will use the third and last chapter to investigate how the Irish where the victim of economic discrimination. Central to this question will be the debate surrounding the so called ‘NINA-signs’. NINA, being an acronym for ‘No Irish need apply’ was a now well-known example of anti-Irish discrimination in the labor market, especially in the higher payed professions like shop clerk in nineteenth century USA. As mentioned my hypothesis for this investigation will be that all three factors were present but that the main source of the anti-Irish sentiments was religious and that this was the case since various forms of Protestantism had formed the basis of the USA. Protestant fears of the Roman oppressor In his article ‘Political Romanism: Re-evaltuating American Anti-Catholicism in the age of the Italian Revolution’ Steve Conn opens with a description of riots which took place in Cincinatti Ohio in the years 1853. These riots happened when a group of six-hundred angry Americans congregated in front of the house of Cincinatti’s bishop.   Steven Conn, 'Poltical Romanism: Re-evaluating American Anti-Catholicism in the age of the Italian Revolution', Journal of the Early Republic 36.3, 521-548 (2016) aldaar 521. This anecdote is a clear example of discrimination towards Catholics in the USA of the nineteenth century. The following chapter will investigate how the discrimination of which Conn’s anecdote is an example came to be and why the 1.3 million Catholics which came to the USA between 1846 and 1855 became the predominant its predominant victim (and not the Germans who came in the same period).   Michael Barone, 'We've Been here Before: America and the Dynamics of Immigration', Modern Age Vol.58(3), 9-17 (2016) aldaar 10. The existing literature seems to have two main schools of thought. Historian John McGreevy described these in is article ‘Anti-Catholicism in the United States: The view from History’ as cultural (with a physical background) and religious anti-Catholicism.   John T. McGreevy, 'Anti-Catholicism in the United States: The view from History', in: Margaret O'Brein Steinfels, American Catholics, American Culture: Tradition and Resistance(Lanham 2004) 156. In this division one can assume – based on the arguments – that historian Richard Jensen and the Sociologists Jose Casanova, Sabrine Ramet and Christine Hassenstab can be found to represent the religious school of thought and on the other hand one finds historians Steven Conn, Nicholas John Pellegrino and William Kurtz defending the cultural school. Both schools will be examined one at a time in the coming paragraphs. An contemporary author who anonymously called himself ‘an American’ mentioned the anti-Catholic movement ‘The know-nothing party’ in his book 'The sons of the Sires: A history of the Rise, Progress, and Destiny of the American Party'. He went on describing their stance as being: 'manifest to Americans that the Bishops and Archbishops held absolute control over the minds of their spiritual subjects [who were] ready to cast their votes in that direction which would most effectually tend to the advancement of their Church; it was this which created the emergency that demanded a rising of the people against these encroachments upon our peace and safety.'   An American, 'The Sons of the Sires: A History of the Rise, Progress, and Destiny of the American Party' (Philadelphia 1855) 30. From this fragment one can see both a cultural and religious background. The closing sentence ‘it was this which created the emergency that demanded a rising of the people against these encroachments upon our peace and safety’ predominantly suggesting a cultural basis but the opening 'manifest to Americans that the Bishops and Archbishops held absolute control over the minds of their spiritual subjects' doing the exact opposite. In this matter, Political Scientist Michael Barone’s anecdote in which the ‘Know-nothings’ destroyed a block of marble given by pope Pius IX to be a part of the Washington monument in the 1850’s because they labeled it as a ‘sinister gift. Gives rise to the idea that the KNP predominately acted out of a religious fear.   Barone, 'We've been here before' 12. A fear like this is, given that the KNP viewed itself - as would the KKK later in time – as the voice of White Anglo Saxon Protestant [WASP] interests.   Ibidem. These Americans, who’s ancestry came to America to freely practice the Anglican, Puritan or Presbyterian Calvinist faith, saw themselves as the ‘Original Americans’.   – Ibidem.  – José Casanova, 'The Politics of Nativism: Islam in Europe and Catholicism in the United States', Philosophy and Social Criticism 38.4-5 (2012) 486.– José Casanova, 'The Politics of Nativism: Islam in Europe and Catholicism in the United States', Philosophy and Social Criticism 38.4-5, 485-495(2012) aldaar 486. The know-nothings where, in that logic, on guard of anything that had anything to do with Catholicism, this because the religious freedom – which they themselves now wanted to limit – had come to exist by the hands of their ancestry which had fled the Europe which was at the time dominated by Catholics.   Ibidem 9. Richard Jensen by no surprise calls thus summarizes the KNP stance as; They were also intensely alert to the activities of the papacy'   Richard Jensen, 'No Irish Need Apply' 410. With this focus on the activities of the papacy, the KNP witnessed their country now experiencing an influx 35.000 to 1.100.000 new Catholics in the period between 1790 and 1845 as put forth by Ramet and Hassenstab.   Sabrine P. Ramet & Christine M. Hassenstab, 'The Know-nothing Party: Three Theories about its Rise and Demise' Politics and Religion Vol.6.3, 570-595 (2013), 577. From 1845 to 1854 this number would increase by another 1.3 million as evidences by Barone.   Barone, 'We've been here before' 10. All these new Catholics however also needed Bishops and Priests. With the massive increase in Catholics in the USA, the Catholic church in America therefor saw the need to import these clerics from Europe. The numbers therefor support the KNP claim that Catholicism – which they saw as archaic and un-American - was explosively growing in their USA.   Casanova, 'The Politics of Nativism' 486. Given the ideas of the KNP it is therefore not surprising that a significant portion of Ramet and Hassenstab’s ‘Know-nothing Party: Three Theories about its Rise and Demise’ is devoted to the resistance the Catholics received when they demanded that their bible would also be made available in mainstream education.   Ramet & Hassenstab, 'The Know-nothing Party' 578-580. The Catholic faith was, such as has been established not entirely new the USA, it’s numbers however were. The anti-Catholic sentiments also had a significant religious component. One cannot however completely neglect the above mentioned last sentence of text by ‘An American’. The threat to the culture itself doesn’t come from ideas as such, there must, therefore also be a non-religious factor to the examined discrimination. This cultural background, as examined by Steven Conn, Nicholas John Pellegrino and William Kurtz. Does stem from the same xenophobia as the religious variant but does leave room for Catholic thought if the said Catholic is perceived to support American ideals. The famous French hero for American independence LaFayette’s Catholic faith didn’t hamper the fact that he was revered as the hero that he was. This fact even introduced a period of relative religious tolerance towards Catholics at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.   McGreevy, 'Anti-Catholicism in the United States' 155. As proven by the experiences of the Irish however this period of tolerance would not last too long as from the 1840’s onwards a wave of anti-Catholicism took sway in the USA.   Ibidem 155-156. Whereas the KNP itself operated from primarily religious motives, their followers who are also known as ‘nativists’ also questioned the loyalty of the new immigrants to the American cause as is argued by William Kurtz.   William B. Kurtz, '”let us hear no more Nativism”; 13. In the early 1840’s however this sentiment was relatively insignificant and only present in the background. However when the USA went to war with Catholic Mexico between 1846 and 1848 this changed and the press – and even top politicians – actively went on to motivate the American Catholics to rally behind the right – American – flag.   Ibidem. To this end they were helped by the American Catholic clergy who stated that to their audiences that the American ideals would have to be defended even if this meant a war against ‘the Roman states of the Pope himself’.   Ibidem. Where this decidedly removed any cause for religiously motivated discrimination, it didn’t stop the discrimination towards the Catholic Irish – and later also the Italians – from occurring. After the war, the KNP, who had until then functioned as a movement, even formalized into a political party.   Ramet & Hassenstab, 'The Know-nothing Party' 570. Furthermore, Steve Conn’s anecdote with which this chapter began, was contrary to what it suggests not religiously motivated act of discrimination. Conn, in the chapters following the anecdote goes on to explain that it wasn’t the bishop himself who was targeted, it was his guest, an Italian bishop.   Conn, 'Political Romanism' 521. The reason for this wasn’t technically religious, it was a reaction to events as they unfolded in Europe. Europe at this time, as explained by Nicholas John Pellegrino, was a continent in turmoil. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic era, on the one hand there was the reactionary force of the Vienna congress which was by the Roman church from 1820 onwards, on the other hand there were several secular nationalist movements such as in Italy and in Germany. The latter were, unsurprisingly, backed by the USA and its populace on the grounds that this for the time modern thinking was the closest to the American idealism.   Nicholas John Pellegrino, 'Reviving the Spirit of Controversy; Roman Catholics and the Persuit of Religious Freedom in Early America', Proquest LCC, 5-31 (2015) 436-437. Twenty years later, the new Irish, who - contrary to their German counterparts - predominately settled in urban ghetto’s where they practiced traditional Catholic values, became, by living the way that they did, the victim of the American allegiance towards turbulent Europe between 1820 and 1861. In this conflict, in which the Irish themselves had no part as a result of the problematic situation of their own homeland (potato famine and no sovereignty). It was exactly them who were made into an easily recognizable scapegoat by the KNP with the accusation of being unable to separate politics and religion.   – Conn, 'Political Romanism' 521.  – Ramet & Hassenstab, 'The Know-nothing Party' 570-571. Concluding for this chapter in which the dichotomy in the literature was reviewed it can also be said that the KNP themselves were at an ideological dichotomy. This is further exemplified by a press release regarding the movement/party from 1854. On the one hand they are described by a very critical – but also anonymous – journalist as a party that is primarily focused towards ‘the triumph of Irish Romanism’. On the other hand however the journalist described their approach as the hindrance at all cost of Irish elements in American life such as – Irish - Pubs.   Anoniem, 'Know-nothings', The Independent (19-10-1854). This situation is reviewed by the journalist as ‘such as combination is sure to defeat its own end’.   Ibidem. This words would prove prophetic since the party suffered such big setbacks in 1856-57 that they would never recover.   Ramet & Hassenstab, 'The Know-nothing Party' 591. As a result the party was dissolved in 1860. The anti-Irish sentiment however didn’t die with the KNP and in 1887 a new party which was specifically anti-Irish came to be; the American Protective Association [ APA].   Richard Jensen, 'No Irish Need Apply' 410. The following chapter will seek to find how the balance shifted from anti-Catholic to specifically anti-Irish sentiments. Apathetic exile or hated foreigner. Towards the end of the last chapter, I have briefly addressed the issue that the Catholic Irish were never perceived as having separated from the conflict in their home country. This conflict, regarding the official status of the Irish island, had – in Ireland - roughly progressed along the same religious division as it did in the USA of the nineteenth century. These sentiments had around that time in Ireland itself progressed into a full blown civil war. In the eyes of the Protestant Irish – also known as Orangist because of their allegiance to the inheritance of the Dutch stadtholder and English king William II of Orange - in the USA, the new influx of catholic immigrants thus seemed to be a repetition of the history that Ireland. This was expressed in the words of a KNP enthusiast; “The all indicate the evil camapign of Romanism, not in the last 23 years but for generations: move into Protestant areas, the Protestants will move out.”   Ramet & Hassenstab, 'The Know-nothing Party' 577. The protestant Irish in the USA thus saw the Catholics as threatening to their own religious freedom, as their ancestry had left Ireland a hundred years back to segregate themselves to escape their perceived status of a religious minority.   Clifford Stevenson, Susan Condor, Jackie Abell, 'The Minority‐Majority Conundrum in Northern Ireland: An Orange Order Perspective', Political Psychology Vol.28.1 105-125(2007) aldaar 116, It is thus no surprise that the literature reveals multiple authors linking the increase of Catholicism in the USA and precarious situation on the Irish island with the rise of anti-Irish sentiments in the America. Amongst these authors are historians Kerby Miller, Linda Downling Almeida and Catharine Burns. This being a historical discourse however there’s the question if the cultural fear (and the resulting discrimination) towards the Catholic Irish was the result of behavior by the new immigrants themselves; as seems to be the cause from the mentioned historians. Or if the anti-Catholic sentiments were already latently present before the potato famine as a remnant of the Anglican background of the USA as is mentioned by – amongst others – Thomas N. Brown and economist-historian E.W. Eckard. In the documentary ‘Out of Ireland; the story of Irish emigration to America’, a documentary paid for by the American ‘national endowment for humanities’, Kerby Miller is shown saying that the Irish migrants in the first place didn’t see themselves as migrants but that they saw themselves as being in exile.   The national endownment for humanities, 'Out of Ireland; the story of Irish Emigration to America', American Focus (1995). [13:30-14:14] Following this stance it thus doesn’t logical that the new Catholics were to any extend motivated to become assimilate and participate in their new home country. The extent to which the ‘Irish issue’ and perceived position of the ‘post-famine Irish’ in the USA were seen as intertwined is portrayed by Miller via an anecdote in which these ‘exiles’ were dissuaded by their family to send home ‘empty letters’ (letters without cash money included).   Ibidem. In the same context there is the study by Catharine Burns of ‘Home Rule’ activism in New York. The activism, which would be around till long after the nineteenth century, didn’t view affairs like American aid in the first world war not through American interests. The only position that mattered for the activists involved was how the position of the USA would affect their own Irish-Republican agenda.   Catharine M. Burns, 'The Loyal Irish: Pro-War Patriotism and Irish Home Rule Activism in New York City',New Hibernia Review Vol.20(2), 59-79 (2016) aldaar 60. A key factor in keeping these sentiments alive in the ‘United Irish League of America (UILA)’ were women organizations like ‘the United Irishwomen’ who used appealing to ‘the defense of their Irish mothers’ to motivate their male counterparts to go into in military service with the American army.   Ibidem. 65. The main motivation for this was of course, as is also shown by Burns, to instill an honorary debt on the part of the American government through military participation in American battlegrounds like the civil war and the First world war. This honorary debt could then perhaps be used to persuade the US government to defend the Republican interests in the Irish issue.   Ibidem. In chapter one I have mentioned that ‘the post-famine’ Irish mainly concentrated in the urban centers of the US east coast. It was in these urban centers where the Irish Republican Army was founded.   Alan O'Day, 'Imagined Irish Communities: Networks of Social Communication of the Irish Diaspora in the United States and Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries', Immigrants and Minorities 23.2-3 399-424 (2005) aldaar 412. The nationalism that created the framework for this however was only created after the transatlantic voyage as is exclaimed by Alan O’day and Miller.   – Ibidem 407.  – Kerby Miller, 'Ubran Immigrants: The Irish in the Cities', Journal of Urban History, Vol.16.4, 428-441(1990) aldaar 432. This claim is supported by contemporary Anglo-Irish politician Charles Stuart Parnell who travelled to the US in 1880 and noticed that the Irish Americans that he met were ‘more Irish than the Irish themselves’.   L.D. Almeida, ' Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995' (Bloomington, 2001) 21. In this fierce, homesick- like, nationalism the tendency to be endogamous among other Irish would, by no surprise, turn out to be ‘overwhelming’ as is shown by a research done by John R. Logan and Hyoung-jin Shin titled 'Immigrant Incorporation in American Cities: Contextual Determant of Irish, German and British intermarriage'.   John R. Logan & Hyoung-jin Shin,' Immigrant Incorporation in American Cities: Contextual Determinants of Irish, German, and British Intermarriage in 1880', International Migration Revue' Vol.46(3), 710-739 (2012) aldaar 733. This fact, combined with the fact that the ‘post famine’ Irish concentrated themselves in neighborhoods like Boston’s ‘South side’ created a rigid framework for a self-induced segregation from mainstream society. The rift that is known in the literature as ‘pre famine’(mainly Protestant) and ‘post famine’ (mainly Catholic) was thus created. Sandra L. Barns mentions that in this situation, in part because of the high amount of endogamy, the Catholic Irish for a long time had a significantly lower amount of social capital than their Protestant fellow countrymen. This kept them from achieving social and economic upward mobility.   Sandra L. Barns, 'Exiles in a Foreign Land: A Comparative Analysis of the Historical Role of Religion for African Americans and Irish Immigrants', Humanity & Society Vol.39.3, 294-320 (2015) aldaar 296. The view of a self-imposed isolation, a view which Richard Jensen describes a current presence of a myth of victimization, however is very one-sided.   Richard Jensen, 'No Irish Need Apply' 411. To this end, the facts that the concentrations pretty much always happened in the poorest, most peripheral parts of industrial cities, that the Irish were competing with slaves in order to find work around the time of the Civil war and that the contemporary Irish immigrant Jeremiah O’Donnovan Rossa spoke the sentence “I am made to see that the English Power, and the English influence and the English hate, and the English Boycot against the Irishman is to-day as active in America as it was in Ireland, hint that the role of the Irish themselves is only part of the background of how the marginalized position of the ‘post-famine’ Irish came to be.   – Miller, Urban Immigrants...' 432.  – The national endownment for humanities, 'Out of Ireland; the story of Irish Emigration to America', American Focus (1995). [26:18-27:00]. – Matthew Frye Jacobson, 'Special Sorrows: The Diasporic Imagination of Irish, Polish and Jewish Immigrants in the United Sates.' (Los Angeles 2002) 25. John R. Logan judging by the framework of the aforementioned research, seems to share this idea. In this framework, he researches both internal (from the community itself) and external (from other communities) factors, Logan concludes that there is a positive correlation between social status and exogamy.   – John R. Logan & Hyoung-jin Shin,' Immigrant Incorporation in American Cities 716.  – Ibidem 734. The findings of Logan should however, not be seen as a cause for the social isolation but as an effect. This because Logan’s findings are regarding the year 1880, as we have seen in chapter one however, the onset of anti-Catholic Irish sentiments however where from 40 to 30 years before that. As is shown by Thomas N. Brown in his article 'The Origins and character of Irish-American nationalism’ it – unsurprisingly – were the Protestant Irish and the non-Catholic Americans who supported the KNP between 1840 and 1850.   Thomas N. Brown, ''The Origins and character of Irish-American'nationalism, Review of Politics 18, 327-358 (1956) aldaar 332. This group being the group where most of the already present social capital was concentrated, and the KNP being a group that was – as is concluded in chapter 1 – outspokenly anti ‘post-famine’ Irish. It is thus no surprise that the ‘post-famine’ Irish had difficulty achieving the said upward mobility because of their social background. Because of this, many of the Catholic Irish were forced into the lower paid jobs with few opportunities for upward mobility.   Steven P. Erie, 'Rainbow's End : Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840-1985' (Berkeley1988) aldaar 59 One of the few ways these Irish could however for some time lay in professional baseball.   Woodrow Eckard, ' Anti-Irish Job Discrimination circa 1880', aldaar 408. Eventually however this to would prove to be an exemplary case-study of anti-Irish sentiments. At first the Irish were welcome to take part and succeed in the sport. When time progressed however this labor market too, was subjected to anti-Irish stereotypes of Anglo-Saxon background. These stereotypes were a remnant of ideas that had been brought to the American lands before the 1776 revolution but only came to the forefront almost a century later when the despised Irish actually started to be visible to the American public.   Ibidem 410. These stereotypes, in which the Catholic Gaelic Irish (to differentiate with the Protestant Scottish Irish) where portrayed via cartoons as ape-like creatures of who were assumed to be dumb, unreliable and lazy. Furthermore, Irish men were also considered to be uncivilized and exceptionally prone to be violent.   Ibidem. This blatantly racist portrayal caused the baseball leagues – who were pressured to do so by the fans – to actively shun the Irish from baseball in order to ‘keep the sport respectable’.   Ibidem 416. Eckard’s stance – as mentioned above in the above paragraph and in the introduction – indeed seems to hold up to scrutiny if one compares the stereotypes in the US with the stereotypes found in Great Britain. An example of the stereotypes present in Great Britain can be found in Hazel Water’s citation which can be found in here research of anti-Irish racism in Great Britain. This citation, in which a certain TC Foster is cited reads; “Remember, you are dealing with a people who, in the mass, are almost uncivilized. Like children, they require governing with the hand of power. They require authority and will bear it.”   Hazel Waters, ' The Great Famine and the rise of anti-Irish racism', Race & Class Vol.37(1), 95-108 (1995) aldaar 99 Besides this quote, Waters also explains that the reason the Gaelic Irish fled Ireland in the first place is also found in British racism towards the Irish. This because when, in part because of British politics of suppression, the potato famine took hold of Ireland, it were the British liberals who denied to Irish the much needed help. They did this on the grounds that the ungrateful and inferior Irish didn’t deserve the money it would cost.   Ibidem 96.  All the examples to this point however where specifically spearheaded towards Irish men, the decidedly negative stereotypes in the US however, also had an specifically anti-female form.    Rebcecca A. Fried, 'No Irish need deny: Evidence for the Historicity of NINA restrictions in Advertisements and Signs', Journal Of Social History vol 49.3, 829-854 (2016) aldaar 831. This fact isn’t entirely strange judging by the fact that a significant part of the post-1880 migrants were female.   A. O'Day, ' Imagined Irish Communities..' 405. It is therefore not surprising that in the debate regarding economic discrimination such as the above mentioned baseball anecdote there is also discussion regarding the female labor market. One of these debates is between historians Richard Jensen and Rebecca Fried.   R.A. Fried, 'No Irish need deny...' 831. This debate will be examined in the next chapter but for this chapter it is interesting that the women too where portrayed as the opposite of the ideal woman of the USA in de nineteenth century in which the idea of a chaste, socially hygienic, stay-at-home woman became the new ideal.   Peter Flynn, 'How Bridget was framed: The Irish Domestic in Early American Cinema, 1895-1917', Cinema Journal 50.2, 1-20 (2011) aldaar 2-3. Irish women were often found to be working as a maid. Therefore they became central in the imagery of the US middle classes in which they were portrayed as a threat to normal family life.   – R.A. Fried, 'No Irish need deny...' 831-832.  – P. Flynn, 'How Bridget was Framed...' 2-3. The essay 'How Bridget was Framed: The Irish Domestic in Early American Cinema, 1895-1917' by film producer Peter Flynn, gives a portrayal of how the makers stereotypical imagery used Irish women to portray the way that civilized women should not behave. He quotes Steven Mints and Susan Kellog in saying that she is portrayed as not in control of her feelings.   Steven Mintz en Susan Kellogg, 'Domestic Revolutions: A Social History Of American Family Life' (New York 1988). 55. Just like the male Gaelic Irish the women were thus portrayed as a underdeveloped labor migrant who had to develop oneself to be compatible with the superior Anglo-Saxon culture. Be as it may that the Gaelic Irish women had less trouble on a whole to find employment in the US, the original version of the song ‘no Irish need apply’ proves that the woman too were subject to discrimination.   Jensen, “ No Irish Need Apply...” 407-408. This further supports the claim that the anti-Irish discrimination was a product of anti-Irish sentiments which preceded the actual arrival of the said Irish. The strong sense of superiority which the WASP migrants had towards the new (Gaelic Irish) immigrants, combined with the imported sense of animosity created, as we can conclude, a high degree of social discrimination towards the Gaelic Irish. The high degree of inter- communal identification combined with the high level of endogamy on the other created the circumstance in which the Gaelic Irish remained a segregated community.   – Thomas N. Brown, ''The Origins and character of Irish-American'nationalism', 332.  – J.R. Logan & Hyoung-jin Shin,' Immigrant Incorporation in American Cities...' 733. At this point of the research it can be concluded that whereas the original cause of segregation was a religious one as time progressed this religious background grew to a specifically anti-Irish racism through a combination of external stereotypes and internal endogamy and identification.   – S.L. Barns, 'Exiles in a Foreign Land...' 304  – J.Casanova, 'The Politics of Nativism 487. Towards the 1880’s this resulting segregation had acquired a clear economic form. This economic discrimination will be further investigated in chapter three. Central to this next chapter will be the song of which John F. Poole’s adapted version is omitted below. 'I'm a decent boy just landed From the town of Ballyfad; I want a situation, yes, And want it very bad. I have seen employment advertised, "It's just the thing," says I, "But the dirty spalpeen ended with 'No Irish Need Apply.' " "Whoa," says I, "that's an insult, But to get the place I'll try," So I went to see the blackguard With his "No Irish Need Apply.'   Jensen, “ No Irish Need Apply...”408. Boss Tweed as America’s moral compass. At the end of last chapter, and with the from Poole’s text it becomes clear that the anti-Irish discrimination also becomes clear that, at least at the time when the songs (Poole’s version and the original) were written, had also come to play a part in the policy that employers had in hiring employees. The debate between Jensen and Fried that I have mentioned in chapter two had as its central topic if the infamous ‘no Irish need Apply’[NINA] signs were actually present as much in shop windows as the song suggests. In her essay ‘No Irish need deny: Evidence for the Historicity of NINA restrictions in Advertisements and Signs’ Rebecca Fried mentions that; not only were these signs quiet common but they were also found in newspaper adds.   R.A. Fried, 'No Irish need deny...' p.839-840. The Irish were thus actively thwarted to reach the higher segments of society through labor and in this way stayed confined to the bottom segments of the US economy between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this chapter I will research through existing literature how the question ‘How did the economy of the US between 1865 and 1916 affect the position of Gaelic Irish immigrants?’ should be answered. In other words I will seek to find if, besides an economic effect, one can also find an economic background for the discrimination of the Gaelic Irish immigrants in the USA. One first thing that should be mentioned from the literature is from the Almeida’s book 'Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995’. In this book she mentions that on the onset of the seventh decade of the nineteenth century the USA witnessed several small economic crises which predominately struck the American industries.   L.D. Almeida, ' Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995' (Bloomington, 2001). p,18, The Gaelic Irish, who were the predominant laborers in this sector, it is thus a logical conclusion that the resulting unemployment would have struck them the hardest of all.   Kerby Miller, 'Ubran Immigrants: The Irish in the Cities', Journal of Urban History, Vol.16.4 (1990) p.439. This time however was also the time in which the Irish labor union radicalized in the approach of employee emancipation, Almeida described this with the sentence: 'The aggressive and inventive tactics of Irish American labor leaders in this period belie the image so often associated with the Irish at the time as either wild, uncontrollable drunks or lemmings led by local parish priests.'   L.D. Almeida, ' Irish Immigrants in New York City...' p.18. The tactics she speaks of thus helped to uphold the negative stereotypes from chapter two besides being effective on the short term. In his article ‘Anti-Irish Job Discrimination circa 1880: ‘Evidence from Major League baseball’ Woodrow Eckard point to the fact that the Irish indeed had a difficulty of reaching the higher social strata of labor of the US.   Woodrow Eckard, ' Anti-Irish Job Discrimination...' p. 411, As a consequence they often wound up and stayed in the lower paid and lower educated professions were the means of developing oneself were all but missing.   Ibidem. Historians Eckard and Jensen however, attribute this to behavior by the Irish themselves. In this respect, Jensen argues that whereas most Americans from that time used a significant part of their wages to invest in themselves, the Irish neglected to do this and thus kept themselves back. This Irish did invest in education of their young but this usually went to – mostly Catholic – education amongst their own ranks which was primarily designed to instill the pupils with traditional values and traditional Irish culture.   Jensen, “ No Irish Need Apply...” p.413, Furthermore Jensen gives the above given argument in the context in which he tries to show that the infamous NINA signs are a myth. Eckard gives a more conservative argument but he does share Jensen’s view that labor was to scarce during this period to enable discrimination.   W.Eckard, ' Anti-Irish Job Discrimination...' p. 411, Eckard and Jensen however do not seem to have a strong base of support throughout the academic community. The statistics aren’t on their side either and seem to prove the contrary. First it is a fact that the Irish in the nineteenth century were mainly concentrated along the peripheries of the cities in ghettos that are also known as ‘Paddy Camps’, this term can impossibly be disassociated with the Irish that were the main residents of said ‘camps’.   Kerby Miller, 'Ubran Immigrants: The Irish in the Cities', Journal of Urban History, Vol.16.4 (1990) p.432 Secondly, as mentioned above, the main bulk of literature makes clear that it was predominately the Irish who bore the brunt of the industrial depressions and ended up for low wages without much opportunity for growth.   Steven P. Erie, 'Rainbow's End : Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840-1985' (Berkeley1988). p.61. Finally it has been proven, as is also mentioned above, Rebecca Fried has been proven with primary source material that the ‘NINA’ signs did actually exist and were quite present in the nineteenth century United States and weren’t, as is argued by Jensen, a figment of collective imagined memory at the part of the Irish who claimed they had seen the signs.   – R.A. Fried, 'No Irish need deny...' p.839-840.  – Jensen, “ No Irish Need Apply...” p.410. The questioning of the victimization of the Irish in the US is however a justifiable act. The Irish did after all, as mentioned by Alan O’Day send large sums of money abroad (to Ireland) and to the Catholic church. This too is backed up by facts as between 1858 en 1866 roughly half a million dollars were spent on arming the IRA. In the 1890’s about another five million a year went to Ireland by letter (see also ‘no empty letters’ as said by Kerby Miller). Finally it is estimated that a large part of the Catholic churches in Ireland has been built using money from the US.   A. O'Day, ' Imagined Irish Communities..' p.411-413. Jensen’s claim that the Irish didn’t spent their money on self-development is thus true and in many cases the money wasn’t even spent in the US. Jensen’s claim that the anti-Irish discrimination in labor didn’t exist is however too far-fetched. The article by Eckard even proves that, whereas Eckard himself is skeptical, the Irish tried to emancipate themselves through the atypical labor market of baseball – in which the Irish again were ousted for above mentioned reasons.   W.Eckard, ' Anti-Irish Job Discrimination...' p. 408-410. Furthermore, the article by Peter Catron which is titled: ' Made in America? Immigrant Occupational Mobility in the First Half of the Twentieth Century' contains the sentence “Unlike the wave that entered prior to the age of Mass Migration (1880-1924) who, with the exeption of the Irish, were viewed as to America's and system of values, the Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish immigrant who enterest after 1880 were treated with suspicion by union members and the native-born.” The fact that the Gaelic Irish weren’t seen as contributing to the wealth of the US gives rise to the thought that they were excluded from the mainstream economy.   Peter Catron, 'Made in America? Immigrant Occupational Mobility in the First Half of the Twentieth Century', American Journal of Sociology 22.2 (2016) p.327. In the literature one should thus not be surprised to find several other examples of labor discrimination. Firstly there is the example by Kerby Miller that in the 1840’s Protestant women were preferred over (Irish) Catholic men to work in the cottonmills.   K.Miller, 'Ubran Immigrants: The Irish in the Cities', p.431, Secondly there is Rebecca Fried who, besides debunking Jensen’s ‘anti-NINA stance’, gives concrete examples like an Idaho newspaper didn’t only place adverts having NINA signs but even defended this as ‘protecting the Republican ideals of the US’   R.A. Fried, 'No Irish need deny...' p.833. The anti-Irish sentiments in 1909 even reached the cinema’s with the movie ‘Servant’s Revenge’ in which an Irish housemaid exacted her disproportionate revenge on the lady who had fired here by severely disrupting the welcoming of houseguests. Bridget (the housemaid) was portrayed as the opposite of the proper lady who was in control of her emotions – as she was supposed to by contemporary standards. She was the primitive form of womanhood in the flesh posited towards the proper lady who managed to contain herself and who kept to the background.   Peter Flynn, 'How Bridget was framed...' p. 1-2. The extend in which this film is to be held directly responsible for lesser employment of Irish women as housemaids is unknown. It is however clear that it is symptomatic for an economic form of anti-Irish discrimnation in the US between the Civil war and the First world war. The answer to the question which started this chapter one can thus conclude that the Gaelic Irish immigrants – at least in the investigated period – under the effects of discrimination were struggling to emancipate themselves towards the WASP Americans. In part this was because the Irish themselves invested much of their finance in their families in Ireland and the fight for independence there. A more significant part however can be found be the receiving WASP Americans that, reasoning from negative stereotypes, actively thwarted the social rise of the new immigrants. Following this exclusion from the mainstream economy the Irish were forced to find other ways of sustaining themselves. To this end they ended up working for employers who were less picky in their personnel. These employers turned out to be the big bosses of industry that were in the Democratic Party of the time. The saviors of the Irish in America thus became people like William Magear “Boss” Tweed as is exclaimed by Steven Erie and the documentary Out of Ireland; the story of Irish Emigration to America.   – The national endownment for humanities, 'Out of Ireland; the story of Irish Emigration to America', American Focus (1995).  – Steven P. Erie, 'Rainbow's End : Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840-1985' (Berkeley1988). p.26. It was in this way that the WASP efforts to shield the economy from the Catholic Irish danger became part of its that economy’s biggest problem of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. But that as they say; is hindsight. Conclusion From the literature of this research we can; after analysis and comparison conclude that the American disapproval of the new ‘post-famine’ migrants from Ireland began from a religious motive. The driving forces of this fear were the earlier migrants who had come – amongst other places – from Ireland to escape religious repression and settle in the ‘empty’ America to create a religious haven on Protestant basis for themselves and their offspring. However when the Gaelic Irish took refuge and thus joined their former countrymen to escape the hunger caused by the potato famine, there was a Catholic renaissance in Europe. The new Catholics unwillingly were labeled as the long reach of Rome and were to be kept out of the US as much as possible according to WASP sentiments. However, because the new Catholics were almost uniformly Irish, the American frame of mind started evolving to one in which the dangerous Catholics became fused with Anglo-Saxon stereotypes of Irish as unintelligent, ape like race. The fusion of these two stereotypes proved to be self-ratifying when halfway the nineteenth century it even became a political movement known as the ‘know-nothings’. The reaction from the Irish community furthermore, helped to strengthen the xenophobia in the US. This because they didn’t see themselves as Americans but as Irish exiles. Military service in America for them wasn’t a display of patriotism (for America) but a gathering of military skills and the creation of an honorary debt towards the US government to later be used in the Irish issue. In the economic sense however the discrimination found her most potent form. In this dimension, negative stereotypes from the social dimension created the effect that the Gaelic Irish where systematically excluded from full economic participation for a long time. The self-chosen identity of the Catholic Irish as exiles in the US however also had the effect that the low income that the Irish did earn, for a large part left the country to be used in Ireland and thus couldn’t be used to gather social or material capital in the capitalist US. In the research of the main question ‘What is the background of the discrimination of the Gaelic Catholic Irish in the US between the end of the Civil war and the participation in the First world war?’ it must thus be concluded from the researched literature that there indeed seem to be 3 background factors. These are; differences in religion, negative (social) stereotypes and economic inequality. These background can however hardly be seen as separate as is also concluded by American historian Hasi Diner in the 1995 documentary by ‘the national endowment for humanities’; 'Out of Ireland; the story of Irish Emigration to America', American Focus (1995). As if today, the discrimination of the Irish in the US is a distant memory, as is proven by the fact that in 1961 it was an by origin Irish Catholic who reached the highest imaginable profession in the US, this man was president John Frederick Kennedy. The concept of discrimination such as the Irish witnessed from 1840 until 1916 however is far from ‘just a distant memory’ but at least the Irish are now fully emancipated. Literature en Primary Sources Almeida, L.D. ' Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995' (Bloomington, 2001). Anoniem, 'Know-nothings', The Independent (19-10-1854). An American, 'The Sons of the Sires: A History of the Rise, Progress, and Destiny of the American Party' (Philadelphia 1855) 30. 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