IRISH
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IRISH
Catholic immigrant. Suffice it to say that it was
only too real and widespread, and that, under the
guidance of bigots and unprincipled agitators, it took
shape and form in the various native American and
Know-Nothing movements which were organized
during the period of 1830 to 1855. As a result of
the activities of these associations, Iri.sh Catholics in
many parts of the country, almost alone among all
classes of the population, were subjected to insult
and oppression and were made the victims of mob
violence, their dwellings demoUshed, their families
made homeless, their churches and convents fired,
and their clergy ill-treated. Prior to any threatening
manifestation of this anti-Irish sentiment, there had
existed various societies made up of Irishmen or
their descendants, known as the Sons of Erin,
Montgomery-Greens, Irish Volunteers, various Provi-
dent Societies, and others, whose social and benev-
olent purposes in no wise diminished the patriotic
attachment of their members to the country of
their adoption. Although the number of such so-
cieties and their membership were comparatively
small, yet they served as rallying-points for the
maintenance of the spirit of Irish nationality, and as
centres of the charitable activity of their members.
When the fateful spirit of native Americanism dark-
ened the land and Irish Catholics realized the need
of sustaining one another against a common ag-
gressor, these societies were multiplied, and many of
the Irish thus became proficient in military drill and
the use of arms. There were likewise various County
associations, composed of immigrants or their de-
scendants from the several counties in Ireland and
named after their respective counties.
The great increase in the number of these societies, and the fact that in important political contests their members were arrayed almost as a unit in op- position to the political parties who were identified with these anti-Catholic movements, were made pre- texts for accusing the Irish of a certain clannish- ness which unfitted them to be good citizens. Some, even of their own coreligionists (though not of their race), deplored the fact that the Irish seemed to have isolated themselves from their fellow-citizens and had thereby subjected themselves, however unde- servedly, to the reproach of having put Irish nation- ality above American citizenship. But the wrongs committed against the Catholic Irish immigrants (at that time mostly poor and incapable of resistance), the insults and injuries put upon them because of their race and faith, and the attacks upon their per- sons and property, which almost without exception went unpunished by law, are an efTective answer to these criticisms.
In later days many Gaelic societies have been or- ganized, as well as various Home Rule associations and branches of the Irish Land League. Through these organizations the Irish in America have sought to co-operate with their brethren at home in the movements undertaken for the improvement of the political, social, and industrial conditions of the Irish people in their native land," and the success attend- ing those movements is due in large part to the sym- pathy of the American Irish and their generous contributions of money. The constant affection man- ifested in a practical way by the Irish in America for their less fortimate brethren in Ireland, may be judged from the large amounts of money remitted to the latter out of the earnings of the Irish in this country. As early as 18.34 H. R. Madden ascer- tained (see Madden, " Memoirs ", 105) that .$:«), 000 was then being sent over annually. This as.sistance was increased from year to year until during the period from 1848 to 18(14 the American Irish sent home no less a sum than £13,000,000, that is, .1565,000,000 (see Parncll Movement, p. UiO). The report of the British Emigration Commissioners for 1873 (cited in
O'Rourke, op. cit., p. .503) states that in 1870 £727,-
408 (equal to $3,600,000) was sent to Ireland from
North America, and that in the twenty-three years
from 1848 to 1870 £16,634,000 or $83,000,000 was
so remitted through banks and commercial houses,
apart from the money sent through private channels.
The historian whom we have quoted estimates the
total transmitted through all channels to relatives
and friends in Ireland by the Irish in America at
£1,000,000 annually, or in all the enormous sum of
over £20,000,000 ($100,000,000) for the twenty-three
years preceding the date when he wrote (1874). That
the amount remitted from that time to the present has
been equally large, there can hardly be any doubt.
The most prominent, as it is the most distinctively Irish perhaps, among the societies to which we have referred is the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which was organized in America in the year 1836 for the avowed purposes of promoting friendship, unity, and Christian charity among its members and the ad- vancement of the principles of Irish nationality. Many of the branches maintain systems of insurance, paying death benefits not exceeding $3000. In 1908 it had a total membership of 200,000 persons asso- ciated in 2365 divisions, distribulied in forty-seven states and territories of the Union. The property owned by the order was valued (1906) at $1,722,069. During the last twenty-three years the order paid out for sick and funeral benefits $7,174,156 and in other charitable donations $4,481,146, besides many con- tributions for the relief of the sufferers from extraor- dinary calamities, the latest being the gift of $40,000 in aid of those who suffered in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Its contributions in support of education include an endowment of $50,000 to the Catholic University at Washington and $10,000 to Trinity College, Washington, besides over 500 scholar- ships in various colleges and academies throughout the country, and it has given over $25,000 in aid of the work of the Gaelic League for the revival of the Irish language and literature. Other societies, such as The Emerald Beneficial Association, The Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, founded in 1896 for benevolent purposes and composed almost entirely of members of Irish nationality, have a large member- ship in various states and territories. Besides these societies, which are of national extent, numerous other smaller societies have been organized, mostly since 1840, and in the larger cities of the Eastern States, each society comprising emigrants or their de- scendants from particular counties in Ireland. Their purposes are purely social and benevolent and their members nearly all Catholics.
Of the relations of the Roman Catholic Irish to- wards the Church in America it is almost needless to. speak. Not only do the Catholics of other nation- alities, but their fellow-citizens of other faiths, ac- knowledge the great services rendered by the Irish in America in the up-building of the Church. So identi- fied have they been with the maintenance and progress of the Church that their race and religion united have made them a marked element in the community. The mission of the Irish race, as evidenced by the part which they have taken in the support of religion in the United States, has been the theme of many writers, and it would be as endless as unnecessary a task to detail here what the Irish have done in that respect. Their nvimber alone, coming from a land where they had suf- fered SI) greatly for conscience' sake, implied a corres- ]i()iiding religious activity and influence in the United States, where llicy were released from the restraints to which they were subject at home. With their con- stantly increasing numbers, they provided in turn the laity out of which new congregations were formed and the clergy which supplied to a large extent their spiritual needs. From the time of the first Bishop, John Carroll, of the See of Baltimore, to the pres-
