Irish Didn't Exploit Their Persecuted Minority Status
Thursday, January 21, 2016 8:13
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The second largest ethnic group in the USA
had to endure terrible hardships and discrimination -
even more than African Americans or Jews. Rather
than hanging on to the past, they chose to work their way
out of the situation and assimilate.
“As for my Irishness, I never grew up thinking I was anything other than American. We were not taught anything else.”
by Don
(henrymakow.com)
According to the Census, there are 34.5 million Americans who list their heritage as either primarily or partially Irish. That number is, incidentally, seven times larger than the population of Ireland itself (4.68 million). Irish is the second-most common ancestry among Americans, falling just behind German.
I am an American of Irish heritage, but have always considered myself American. I knew very little about Ireland except that my father’s mother was Irish and her family were Catholic.
They came to Washington State in the 1890s from Michigan to work in the logging industry. I didn’t know a lot about my grandmother. She died when I was a little over seven. She told us kids that the family was from County Sligo and were forced to leave Ireland or get killed or imprisoned. She didn’t tell us what year that happened or how they ended up in America.
Early on in my working career I mentioned the story to an older coworker thinking it was unique, and he replied “Your family and everyone else.” That’s about all I knew of the Irish until my work took me to SE Texas and Louisiana around 1990.
There I happened to read about the Irish Channel in New Orleans. This channel is also known as the “New Basin Canal” and was dug by Irish Immigrants in the 1830s. Digging this canal was hazardous work and the swamps exposed workers to yellow fever and malaria.
As a result thousands of Irish men died. Black slaves were not used because they were valuable and a loss of a slave was an economic loss to the owner. Irish immigrants on the other hand were cheap. Not only would they would work for less than anyone else, if one died or was injured there was no loss of property. They were easy to replace to, as shiploads of Irish were arriving in New Orleans to escape the oppression and famine in their homeland.
The harsh treatment of the Irish wasn’t limited to the south. In the northern states, they were resented and viewed as a colored race or subhuman.
Likewise this discrimination wasn’t limited to men. Irish women were employed as servants and called “Bridgets” and were treated as slaves.
When war broke out between the states, the Irish immigrants were forced to enlist whereas the Blacks were not.
As bad as the treatment the Irish received in America, it was better than Ireland. The history of their homeland is over 1000 years of bloody and brutal conflict. They have endured invasion, religious persecution, and land confiscation.
The Irish died in greater numbers than Blacks on slave ships.
The Irish had over one million die during the “Potato Famine” while the British exported food from Ireland.
Why didn’t I know about these things growing up? I attribute it to the stoic nature of the Irish people who chose the path of hard work and assimilated into society. Rather than complain about the past, my forbearers decided to forget and move forward.
—
Source: http://henrymakow.com/2016/01/Irish-Didnt-Exploit-Their-Persecuted-Minority-Status .html
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