Irish+Village+and+Donegal+Castle

Irish Village and Donegal Castle



Once the Irish arrived in America, most found jobs as unskilled workers for the mines, railroads, or canals. Most Irish immigrants worked in factories and building railroads in the North. They mainly lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, and New Jersey. They were mostly too poor to move into the interior of these states to own land and work as farmers, so they settled close to the port where they were disembarked. This meant that they mostly lived in the major cities of each state. Other Irish immigrants became coal miners in Pennsylvania. Working conditions in the mines were appalling with no safety requirements, no official inspections and no proper ventilation. The Irish tended to support the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party. They had little sympathy for slaves as they feared that if they were given their freedom they would move north and threaten the jobs being done by Irish immigrants.

     

In 1850 an Irish settler who had been living in Wisconsin for twelve months wrote a letter to The Times in London (14th May, 1850)

"I am exceedingly well pleased at coming to this land of plenty. On arrival I purchased 120 acres of land at $5 an acre. You must bear in mind that I have purchased the land out, and it is to me and mine an "estate for ever", without a landlord, an agent or tax-gatherer to trouble me. I would advise all my friends to quit Ireland - the country most dear to me; as long as they remain in it they will be in bondage and misery. What you labour for is sweetened by contentment and happiness; there is no failure in the potato crop, and you can grow every crop you wish, without manuring the land during life. You need not mind feeding pigs, but let them intothe woods and they will feed themselves, until you want to make bacon of them. I shudder when I think that starvation prevails to such an extent in poor Ireland. After supplying the entire population of America, there would still be as much corn and provisions left us would supply the world, for there is no limit to cultivation or end to land. Here the meanest labourer has beef and mutton, with bread, bacon, tea, coffee, sugar and even pies, the whole year round - every day here is as good as Christmas day in Ireland."

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Sources: Lewis, Starks W. World's Columbian Exposition: Irish Village. 1893. N.Y. Brooklyn Museum Archives, N.Y. Brooklyn. []

Laird & Lee. Irish Village, Donegal Castle. 1893. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. [].

//Irish Immigration//. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. [].