Irish and New Immigrants
For the most part, immigration to the United States came in two waves from Europe: old stock immigration, which included the Irish, and the new immigrants. Irish immigration existed from the late 1830s through the late 1880s. ... When the Irish Potato Famine struck in 1845, the Irish were doomed. ... The British, meanwhile, were evicting the Irish out of Ireland. ... The United States would be the perfect place for the Irish to turn to. The old stock nations, mostly Germans and Irish, began making their journey to America seeking greater economic opportunities unavailable to them in Europe. By 1860, there were well over a million Germans and one and a half million Irish living in the United States. ... New England had the largest population of the Irish, especially in Boston. Southern states did not attract many immigrants since there was little industrial development or need for unskilled laborers since blacks were already there (Dinnerstein, Nichols, Reimers 91). The Irish who came to America were almost exclusively poor Roman Catholics. The Irish were the first non-Protestant group in America resulting in much hostility of the native whites toward them. In fact, the Irish were the poorest of immigrants who came to the United States in the mid-19th century. The Irish worked bad jobs for little money, but anything was better than starving back in Europe.