Catholic Irish

The Catholic Irish have been a major American ethnic group since they started arriving in the 1840s in the wake of the horrible Irish Potato Famine. Extremely poor with a strong group cohesiveness, high interest in politics, and high rates of alcoholism and violence, they settled in the slums of large cities. many worked in construction gangs. The Irish rose rapidly in the ranks of the Democratic party, the Catholic Church, and (after 1880), the labor unions. The Irish were very well organized, and, since 1850, have produced a majority of the leaders of the Catholic Church in the U.S., labor unions, the Democratic Party in larger cities, and Catholic high schools, colleges and universities. Politically, the Irish Catholic typically voted 80-95% Democratic in elections down to 1964.

Irish in politics and government

The Catholic Irish moved rapidly into law enforcement, and (through the Catholic Church) built hundreds of schools, colleges, orphanages, hospitals, and asylums. Political opposition to the Catholic Irish climaxed in 1854 in the short-lived Know Nothing Party.

By the 1850s, the Irish Catholics were a major presence in the police departments of large cities. In New York City in 1855, of the city's 1,149 policemen, 305 were natives of Ireland. The creation of a unified police force in Philadelphia opened the door for the Irish in that city. By 1860 in Chicago, 49 of the 107 on the police force were Irish. Chief O'Leary headed the police force in New Orleans and Malachi Fallon was chief of police of San Francisco.

John F. Kennedy was their greatest political hero. Al Smith, who lost to Herbert Hoover in the 1928 was the first Irish Catholic to run for president From the 1830s to the 1960s, Irish Catholics voted 80-95% Democratic, with occasional exceptions like the election of 1920, when they angrily turned away from the Democrats who had failed to secure Irish independence.

Ronald Reagan boasted of his Irishness. (The son of an Irish Catholic father, he was raised as a Protestant.)

John F. Kerry was the losing Democratic nominee in 2004. Joe Biden is the only Catholic elected vice president. In 1944 Jimmy Byrnes lost the Democratic nomination for vice president because he had been born Catholic and left the Church, making him ineligible in the minds of many Catholics.

Today, most Irish Catholic politicians are associated with the Democratic Party, although some have become Republican leaders, such as former GOP national chairman Ed Gillespie, New York Congressman Peter T. King and retired Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde.

Historically, Irish Catholics controlled many city machines and often served as chairmen of the Democratic National Committee, including County Monaghan native Thomas Taggart, Vance McCormick, James Farley, Edward J. Flynn, Robert E. Hannegan, J. Howard McGrath, William H. Boyle, Jr., John Moran Bailey, Larry O'Brien, Christopher J. Dodd, and Terry McAuliffe. The majority of Irish Catholics in Congress are Democrats; currently Susan Collins of Maine is the only Irish Catholic Republican senator.

Exit polls show that in recent presidential elections Irish Catholics have split about 50-50 for Democratic and Republican candidates; large majorities voted for Ronald Reagan. The pro-life silent majority in the Democratic party includes many Irish Catholic politicians, such as senator Bob Casey, Jr., who defeated Senator Rick Santorum in a high visibility race in Pennsylvania in 2006.

Many major cities have elected Irish Catholic mayors. Chicago, Boston, and Jersey City have breen especially prominent. New York City has had at least three Irish-born mayors and over eight Irish Catholic mayors. The most recent one was County Mayo native William O'Dwyer, elected in 1949.

see also

• Protestant Irish

Further reading

• Glazier, Michael, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, (1999), the best place to start--the most authoritative source, with essays by over 200 experts, covering both Catholics and Protestants.
• Anbinder, Tyler. Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum (2001).
• Bayor, Ronald and Timothy Meagher, eds. The New York Irish (1996) comprehensive overview by numerous scholars
• Blessing, Patrick J. The Irish in America: A Guide to the Literature. Longaeva Books (1992)
• Clark, Dennis. The Irish in Philadelphia: Ten Generations of Urban Experience (1973)
• Diner, Hasia R. Erin's Daughters in America : Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century (1983).
• Erie, Steven P. Rainbow's End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840—1985 (1988).
• Gleeson; David T. The Irish in the South, 1815-1877 University of North Carolina Press, 2001
• Greeley, Andrew M. The Irish Americans: The Rise to Money and Power. (1993).
• Ignatiev, Noel. How the Irish Became White (1996). New Left
• Jensen, Richard. "No Irish Need Apply": A Myth of Victimization," Journal of Social History 36.2 (2002) 405-429
• Kenny, Kevin. The American Irish: A History (2000), solid scholarly history
• McCaffrey, Lawrence J. The Irish Diaspora in America (1976).
• Meagher, Timothy J. Inventing Irish America: Generation, Class, and Ethnic Identity in a New England City, 1880-1928 (2000).
• Meagher, Timothy J. The Columbia Guide to Irish American History. (2005).
• Miller, Kerby M. Emigrants and Exiles (1985), influential study
• Mitchell, Brian C. The Paddy Camps: The Irish of Lowell, 1821—61 (1988).
• Mulrooney, Margaret M. ed. Fleeing the Famine: North America and Irish Refugees, 1845-1851 (2003). Essays by scholars
• Negra, Diane, ed. The Irish in Us (2006).
• O'Donnell, L. A. Irish Voice and Organized Labor in America: A Biographical Study (1997)
• Potter, George W. . To the Golden Door: The Story of the Irish in Ireland and America (1960). useful survey online edition