In “The First Alien Wave,” Nell Irvin Painter discusses the struggles of Irish Immigrants following the Great Famine of 1845. This mass immigration sparked waves of nativism and negative stereotypes towards the Irish, capitalizing on their Catholic religion and poverty. Another significant immigrant group, the Germans, were subjected to less hatred by the American people in part because of their less controversial Protestant religion and well-known wealthy individuals like Johann Jakob Astor. The Germans were able to settle into American life while Irish stereotypes and discrimination persisted.
The Irish were an easy target for discrimination because of deeply ingrained anti-Catholicism in America. Irish Protestant immigrants from the 1820s were able to easily settle in America, but Irish Catholics that immigrated post-1830s were met with anti-Catholic sentiment. By the mid-1830s, many anti-Catholic journals and organizations existed in New York and New England. Ministers like Lyman Beecher began preaching violent anti-Catholic sermons, setting off a series of church burnings throughout New England and the Midwest. The expose Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk also made the Catholic church look even worse. Monk’s tales of rape and murder of newborns within the church made the religion look “inherently sexually immoral” (137). While Monk’s allegations were later proved false, it still took a massive hit on the Catholic church and the many Irish that belonged to it.
The “Paddy” stereotype was another damaging view of Irish Americans. Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to the poor Irish as “Paddies,” using stereotypes taken from Richard Steele’s description of the “Poor Paddy” (139). Most Irish worked low paying jobs and became known for their fondness of alcohol, painting them as drunk and lazy to the rest of society. Phrases like “paddy doyle” and “paddywagon” perpetuated this negative stereotype, and linked the Irish to crime and poverty. Cartoons also played a big role in spreading this stereotype, depicting the Irish as ape-like and animalistic, a view strengthened by the writings of respected essayists like Thomas Carlyle, who called Ireland a “human dog kennel” (134). Cartoons of the Irish frequently paralleled them with African Americans who were also seen as inferior.
The rest of American society looked down upon Irish Americans, and often compared them to other minorities that faced discrimination. Upon seeing the Ireland famine firsthand, Frederick Douglass compared the conditions of the poor Irish to those of enslaved African Americans. However, instead of embracing common struggles with the African Americans, Irish Americans made attempts to distance themselves from these parallels, like supporting pro-slavery actions and participating in violent acts towards African Americans during the 1863 Draft Riots.
America during the 1840s saw a rise in nativism, and the prime targets were the Irish and any other group that was not white Protestant. The Know-Nothing Party hated Catholics and participated in the various church burnings and mob violence against Catholics. Over time, the Know-Nothing Party split between the Republicans and Democrats over the issue of slavery, and eventually fizzled out.
But even with the end of this political party, nativism was still strong, and the Irish were still seen as inferior along with the enslaved African Americans. Despite their poverty and stereotypes, the Irish still had their “whiteness,” as Painter describes in the concluding sentence. The Irish and African Americans were seen as separate from the rest of American society, but their skin color still played a role in the way they were treated and perceived by others.
