History

The Irish Americans make a very large part of the American population. It is interesting to realize that they arrived in the United States a hundred years ago from Ireland after a mass exodus in search of better living. Currently they have become assimilated into the American culture. This essay seeks to show the migration of the Irish people from Ireland and their eventual settlement into the United States.
Why the Irish immigrated to USA during the 19th Century
The first bunch of the Irish people to have sailed to America was estimated to be about six thousand in 1816. Within duration of two years, this figure had doubled. The Irish people who arrived in the United States as the first bunch were recruited as canal builders, with more than three thousand Irish workers being employed to work on Erie Canal. This figure had increased to five thousand in 1826, many working in four different canal projects (Spartacus).
The main reason why the large group of Irish people migrated to the United States was when their potato crop was destroyed by blight in October 1845. This affected the Irish people to a very large extent as more than four million of the citizens had depended on this crop as their source of food. The crop disease was experienced again in 1846 leaving about 350,000 citizens dead from starvation and typhus outbreak. Though there was an improvement of the potato harvest in the years that followed, deaths resulting from famine continued and in 1851, it was estimated that approximately one million Irish people had died (Spartacus). This is what stirred the Irish people to start migrating. The followed are the numbers of the Irish people who migrated to the United States over different duration 1846, 92,484 196224 in 1847 in 1848, 173,744 in 1849, 204,771 and in 1850, 206,041. It was estimated that by December 1854, about two million Irish people had moved to the United States. This was approximately a quarter of the Irish people (Spartacus).
     Their immigration was not uncommon in Ireland as this was often the solution to problems such as religious and political repression, lack of social and economic opportunities and hunger. There are some conditions in this country that had been constant for a period of three years in reference to the immigration to the United States of America (Irish American Heritage Museum).  One the main cause of such was poverty as a result of lack of investment capital, raw materials and skilled labour. This is what caused the Irish people to constantly and largely depend on agriculture. The production of livestock and crop for export to the colonial market resulted into landless poor who were referred to as the cottiers. One of the factors that accelerated the crop failure was due to the policies on the land use that were usually very common during the rainy climate of Ireland. Political control, lack of industry and famine are some of the factors that made life in Ireland nearly unbearable (Irish American Heritage Museum).
    The English had confiscated the Irish land and had made a law restricting all the Catholics from purchasing land and also regulating their inheritance. As a result, the Irish Catholics only owned 5 of the land in Ireland by 1750. The British utilized eviction in improving and increasing their land as well as politically punishing the tenants. These evictions intensified in the 19th century, worsening the living conditions of the Irish people and leaving many homeless. This was a major factor that prompted many to flee to the United States of America. Between 1845 and 1849, about two million Irish people particularly the laborers and illiterate Gaelic Catholic farmers moved to the US and transporting the diseased and starving immigrants on ships that were often overcrowded. They did not have settlement plans but just dumped the refugees in USA or Canada. Families used to send one person abroad and if he survived, he would send money or tickets to those left behind (Irish American Heritage Museum).
    The other important reason that prompted people to move abroad was the promise of a better life away from Ireland. There was need of workforce in America as farming frontier of America was being expanded and roads, canals, cities and industries were being built. Those who had immigrated earlier often sent letters back home encouraging friends and relatives to go to America. Though the letters also indicated the many problems that the Irish people were suffering abroad, the greater part was positive.  After the famine years, more than three million people moved from Ireland, most of them being single and aged between fifteen and twenty four (Irish American Heritage Museum).
Living Condition of Irish in USA after Immigration
Life in America was initially miserable for the immigrants. In fact misery would in most cases start immediately they docked.  A group of runners would get into the board and grab the immigrants and their possessions and attempt to compel them to their tenement houses so as to demand money for these services. Since many of the immigrants did not have means of survival in the new land, the majority usually settled at the port.  A letter from one of the immigrants stated that My master is a great tyrant he treats me as badly as if I was a common Irishman. The writer further added, Our position in America is one of shame and poverty. During this period, Irishmen were regarded lowly in America (Kinsella). They then started to search for a livelihood and homes and they settled on different parts of the United States. The majority of the Catholics initially settled in the river towns and coastal cities. They Irish people had been lured into these regions in search of employment and their settlements resulted into the creation of the Irish-American neighborhoods that offered religious and social organizations which have passed down the traditions of the Irish people (American Immigration Law Center).
It was not so easy for the Irish Americans to find settlements in America especially in the 1800s. They were still embedded to their culture as well as experience of a struggling nation faced with class and changing labor problems. Being unskilled and poor contributed to them being discriminated and remaining poor on arrival to America (American Immigration Law Center).
The Irish people then moved to the major cities where they settled in the Shanty towns or Irish towns. It was clear that they were not wanted in America. This was evident in the job vacancy advertisements that bore the words, No Irish need apply. The tough economic status in addition to the fact that they were being considered as bad neighbors caused them to live in shanties and cellars. Such poor conditions often ended in sicknesses and early deaths for the Irish people. It has been estimated that about eighty percent of the Irish children who were born in New York lost their lives. The dress and brogue as well as illiteracy and poverty of the Irish people were a sign of ridicule. Once, the Chicago Post wrote that The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses...Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country (Kinsella).
The Irish people often took offence for all these ridicules and whenever intimidated, they often retaliated with violence. They were united and this gave them strength helping one another in surviving the city life. They were united in drinking and praying together. The Irish men were however more to drinking than to praying as they worked hard to become more Americanized. The church was an important part of their lives. This was a very militant church as it fought not only for souls but for their human rights. This did not end well all the time. For example Philadelphia riots resulted into the burning of many Catholic churches. The Irish people arrived when the country required men to perform heavy jobs such as building canals, bridges and railroads. This work was dangerous and hard resulting into many Irish loosing their lives while on duty. However, they were so desperate and nothing mattered to them (Kinsella).
The Irish Americans were often discriminated basically because of the stereotypes linked to them. Irish were regarded as being lazy, dirty and stupid. They were also all regarded to be Roman Catholics. The main reasons why these suspicions arose is the way they entered America. They did not have jobs and therefore were regarded as coming to steal the peoples jobs. The American spoke all the bad things against the Irish because they were looking for reasons to criticize and get irritated against them. By stating that these people were lazy was to show that they were in fact stealing jobs while by saying that they were stupid, was to show that the Americans were more superior to the Irish people. The African Americans were treated better than the Irish Americans because the former already had jobs that fitted a slave such as farming and cooking. On the other hand, the Irish were being treated as intruders in a foreign land (Doomshroom).
    The Irish women worked as cooks, maids, and children caretakers. Many of the Americans at this time despised these works and viewed them as deserved by servants. They believed that the jobs were meant for Negroes and the Irish. The Irish were also hated by the Negroes who often referred to them as the white nigger. The Irish however were known to work very hard and also very moral. The Irish loved America but hated the English. They had tried to invade Canada twice believing that they could have traded Canada for the freedom of Ireland (Kinsella).
During the civil war, the Irish rioted when the draft lottery showed that that the majorities were Irish. The riots continued for three days until when the Archbishop Hughes called for calm. A secret organization, Molly Maguires was formed in Pennsylvania with the aim of fighting back the mine owners who were dealing with the miners brutally. The group beat and killed several mine owners at their own homes. The Irish had a passion for America and they fought for the nations wars. They were part of the warriors that fought in the civil war forming the Irish Brigade. Before any battle could be fought, there was always a priest to pray. (Kinsella).
The majority of the Irish supported the Democratic Party and not the Republican Party. They little sympathized with the slaves since they feared that if the slaves were freed, they would migrate north and take over their jobs. One Irish American wrote in the newspaper He would be a bad Irishman who voted for principles which jeopardized the present freedom of a nation of white men, for the vague forlorn hope of elevating blacks to a level for which it is at least problematical whether God and nature ever intended them (Spartacus). However during the Civil war, about 170,000 Irish soldiers served in the Union Army with 40, 000 serving in Confederate army.
The Irish Americans were being discriminated on certain grounds. One, there was a general assumption that they were all Catholics and the Americans on the other hand were Protestants. This was evident when clashes between the two religious groups left several dead and churches burnt (Doomshroom). The other factor of oppression was in the area of employment. Some advertisements categorically rejected the Irish Americans in employment while those that were employed were often paid less than their counterparts (Jensen 1). There were some instances where some employee would state a minimum wage but change it when the Irish Americans applied. There this kind of discrimination that prompted the Irish Americans to change their last names to avoid been noticed easily. They also tried all they could not to speak in their accents. Others also abandoned Catholicism. This brought out some positive steps as they were not discriminated much like the African American though the latter lost its culture (Doomshroom).
Irish Americans Today
The Irish America lineaments identity was created in the Irish-American communal life from the 1840s to 1870s. This resulted into an identity that was defined by Catholic (sectarian) nationalism. The modern Irish nationalism is greatly a product of economical, social, cultural and technological conditions and has shown itself as eternally and natural valid. The Irish Americans have utilized the St Patricks Day which serves as memory and reflections of Irish identity. It is during this day that they symbolically and rhetorically rooted their present in a constructed and remembered past in speeches, sermons and in festivities (Moss 1).
    Currently the majority of the Catholic politicians are linked to the Democratic Party though some have even been in the leadership of the Republican Party. Some of the Irish Americans who have risen to prominent positions include ED Gillespie who was the GOP chairman, Ronald Reagan, the former president, Christopher Dodd and J Howard, all who were senators among others. Currently many of the Irish Catholics who are members of the Congress are democrats (Answer).
    The Irish Americans have been in the United States for more than a hundred years and they have been able to assimilate into a larger society when compared to other ethnic groups in the United States. Every generation of the Irish Americans has become more integrated with the culture that is dominant. Currently, it is not an easy task to define the Irish American identity (Rapple). They have been assimilated mostly through intermarriages that have played a great role in neutralizing the ethnic lines. Assimilation has also been made possible by the migration of the Irish Americans from their settlements to large cities, rural areas and suburbs. They have also been part of the public school system that is multicultural, which has resulted into the declination of the parochial school. Of late, there has been minimal migration of the Irish people from Ireland largely because of immigration laws that disfavor Europeans.  According to the 1990 census, there were over thirty eight million Irish Americans. There are still some positive and negative connotations that are associated with this group in the American society. However the Irish Americans still pride in them having an Irish ancestry (Rapple). 
    It is still believed in the United States that the Irish Americans are less cultured and have not advanced so much intellectually. However, this is not true as research conducted have indicated that the Irish Americans are in the group of the most educated and also most liberal in the Country. The group is also well represented in different fields such as Medicine, Law, and Academia among other prominent professions. They have also been very active in the politics of America taking prominent positions in the Democratic Party. There has also been very many Irish Americans who have served as civil servants (Rapple). 
The cultural heritage of Ireland that includes traditions, folklore, music, mythology, dance, and customs has been regarded as one of the richest in the world. However, due to the assimilation of the Irish Americans, this cultural heritage has been on decline. Their song and music has however played a central role in the Americas country and folk music. A great part of the Irish Americans usually takes generic American food in addition to other ethnic groups cuisine. Many are also known to prepare dishes of Irish origin which is common in their pubs and restaurants in different parts of America. Some of their popular dishes include rashers, bangers, soda bread and black and white pudding (Rapple).
Conclusion
The Irish Americans migrated to America in search of better living after great famine and diseases ravaged their motherland, Ireland. Over a period of a hundred years, they have been able to be an established ethnic group that has risen even to have a political impact in the United States of America. Due to the challenges and discriminations that they faced when they arrived, some of them have decided to do away with their culture and instead get assimilated into the American culture. Despite, the assimilation, many Irish American still pride in their culture and boldly. participate in their activities.