2Author Note: This is something I did for my final in Grammar and Composition class. Please read and review!
The Great Adventure of the Irish
All people find it interesting to read stories about oppression, domination, action, adventures, deceit, con artists, and scheming minds. We enjoy strong willed people who overcome grief and hardships and become role models we can look up to and admire. We watch exciting movies containing these elements, thinking "Oh, wouldn't it be cool if something like this had actually happened?" Well, guess what? It did back in our great history during the New Immigration when the Irish first came to America. You say to yourself, "What's so great about some Irish people immigrating to the United States?" Well, if you truly took the time to learn about it, you'll find that it was a real-life adventure that over 650,000 people lived…
The adventure began in Ireland in September 1845 when the potato crops began to die. The cause was an airborne fungus which was killing the plants. Irish people grew exceedingly hungry. Day after day, as the crops continued to fail, their future began to look bleak. This event became known as the Potato Famine.
The condition worsened during the winter of 1846. That December brought great hardship and disease. People found work building stone roads that weren't even needed. Poorly clothed and sick, many workers literally dropped dead on the spot. By 1847, when conditions still didn't seem to get any better, it became clear to the Irish that they had to do something. If they wanted to survive, they would have to leave Ireland. And so the adventure begins.
Americans resented the Irish from the moment that the first wave of immigrants came to their shores. In Boston, the immigrants were treated like animals. Landlords would divide a large house room by room, and make Irish families pay money to stay in a single room that didn't even have lighting to begin with! Many people would settle for a cellar that would flood continually. Desperate for work, they would apply for jobs that would pay them very little for long, hard working hours. Many Irish people ended up jobless.
The conditions in New York were different, but could hardly be considered better. Con artists would take advantage of the poor immigrants as soon as they set foot on land. They promised the Irish to find them nice accommodations for less money. However, they ended up with terrible rooms, which they had to pay even more money. Some con artists would sell phony train or boat tickets, which would either be worthless or way over priced. The cruelty and mistreatment of the Irish soon brought out the worst in the immigrants who had once been peaceful and law abiding citizens.
There was always competition for jobs in the cities. Freed blacks who were former slaves would argue with the Irish for jobs; and usually, violence would result in these arguments. You would think that the Irish would move out of the cities and find some wide open space where they could prosper. However, these Irish folk wanted to band together and socialize like they used to in Ireland. For this reason, people continued to end up homeless and penniless, living on the streets. Young men and boys out of work or school usually ended up getting drunk and into fights. The lawlessness was unbelievable.
With so many people living in the streets, or housing together in small rooms, disease would easily come and wipe through the cities, taking many unfortunate souls. Lots of people, especially small children, would get sick and die from cholera and other illnesses. Families would grieve over their dead loved ones. This added to the terrible and painful hardships, which would tempt many to despair.
"Why do I call this an adventure," you ask me? Well you cannot call anything an adventure unless the people in the story overcame these problems and prospered, despite the hardships they endured. And yes, this is exactly what they did.
It was after the American Civil War. The Irish once again provided the backbreaking work that our country needed, creating an Industrial Era. And it wasn't just the men. Women found work as cooks or maids in rich homes. In 1850, money started to pour into Ireland, sent by the hardworking families in America. By 1900, about $260 million had been sent home to Ireland. Sons and grandsons of the first Irish immigrants became prosperous in American, which truly became "the land of opportunity" for so many people.
At the time, when the Irish first came to America, they wouldn't have thought of it as anything but a tragedy. But looking back, they probably saw that they had made an adventure in history. No one thinks they are living an adventure at the moment; but years later it occurs to them that it had probably been the finest adventure of their time.
I believe that all of us can learn a lesson from these people. When the going got tough, when there seemed to be nothing left for them, these Irish folk pulled together and made something of themselves. They didn't give up no matter what the other people did. Lawlessness turned to peace, penniless to prosperity, death and domination to life and achievement. The Irish Immigration had definitely become an adventure that they lived to remember.