Blog #9

 

 

 

       The Irish were fleeing starvation and seeking new forms of employment, and arrived in America with few marketable skills and little cultural capital to help secure a foothold. They occupied the lowest class with their few of their children receiving education and many Irish landing in jail or homeless. They were disregarded by other groups, believing all Irish to be lowly and dirty who didn’t deserve to be in America. They felt like the Irish were causing America to become dirtier and less prestigious. The second generation of Irish improved, however, as the moved into the more skilled trades and got better jobs as bricklayers, masons, carpenters, etc. More and more Irish children went to school as well, which really improved their class status; middle class Irish families became more common. It also greatly helped the Irish when they left the crowded cities of the East, they succeeded more quickly in the western areas because there was less preconceived ideas of the Irish and less discrimination. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Irish were teachers, policemen, office workers, and so on, so they did accomplish assimilating into the American society, with time. They were able to accomplish the American dream through their hard work.