Question

• How does this article give you a better understanding of the changing perception of Irish immigrants in America? •

What forces allowed the Irish to be assimilated into U.S. culture despite initial resistance?

Much of the anti-Catholic bias that confronted Irish-American immigrants focused on the figure of the Pope. To many nativist Americans, the idea that Catholic immigrants professed allegiance to a foreign-born religious leader raised serious doubts about whether they could ever be "truly" American. The advent of the War Between the States created an opportunity for the Irish immigrant community to "prove" its Americanism—to demonstrate loyalty to its adopted country, and by so doing, put the lie to the assertions of Know-Nothings and other nativists, who saw the Irish as unfit to be called American.

Answer 1

The Irish constituted six percent of the United State's total population. Almost 150,000 served in the Union Army, and 30,000 fought for the Confederacy. The New York Irish Brigade was the best known fighting force during the Civil War. Many other regiments had Irish in their names. Irish immigrants and their descendants also served as individual soldiers in most of the other forces of the First Virginia Battalion and the Tenth Tennessee Regiment.

The Irish were poorer section of the society and hence were more in number in the Civil War. Irish soldiers ha suffered heavy casualties. With the announcement of Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863 many Irish workers thought that the primary goal of the war was to free black slaver, rather than to preserve national unity. Later on authorities used black workers to break an Irish dock, the feelings of anti-war and anti-black of many New York Irish intensified. In spite of all the this Irish immigrants fought in every battle of Civil War. After the war, the States entered a period of of rapid industrialization. The Irish continued to be a significant part of immigration; however the vast number of immigrants coming from other countries meant that Ireland no longer dominated international movement of the United Stater as it had done before the Civil war.