[Janalyn Voigt] St. Patrick’s Day Post – Attitudes toward the Irish in America

Themes crop up in stories whether or not the author means to include them. I didn’t set out to write about prejudice in Montana Gold, but the topic is hard to avoid when writing about the American West. Hills of Nevermore (Montana Gold, book 1) opens the series in 1863, a time of tremendous upheaval. The American Civil War was in full swing, Indian conflicts were escalating, and lawlessness dominated the mining camps. The storyline inserts Into this historical setting an Irish circuit preacher from the slums of Manhattan.

Starving woman with children during the Irish Potato Famine. Image from the Illustrated London News, December 22, 1849 / Public domain

I didn’t understand when I created Shane Hayes how much prejudice nineteenth-century Americans held against the Irish. During the Great Hunger after the potatoes went bad, Ireland’s poor immigrated in droves to America. They left Liverpool, crammed into the steerage compartments aboard ‘coffin’ ships. Rotting food, inadequate toilet facilities, cramped quarters, and foul air fostered cholera, typhus, and other sicknesses. Thousands didn’t survive the journey. Those who arrived alive at the debarkation stations in Boston and New York needed to pass a doctor’s inspection. Those who failed were quarantined in poor conditions, resulting in more deaths.

Bry, the heroine of Cheyenne Sunrise (Montana Gold, book two), struggles to accept the loss of her mother and young brother, who died aboard the ship that brought her family to America. When a half-Cheyenne trail guide is drawn to Bry, her brother counters any attachment between them. His objection is based on fear, an important element underlying prejudice.

Immigrants deemed healthy were released. ‘Runners’ who spoke Gaelic often met them on the dock. These swindlers wanted to help their fellow countrymen, or so they claimed. Instead, they conned new arrivals out of the scant money and the few possessions remaining to them.

A street in the Five Points Slum: Jacob Riis / Public domain

Ports of entry were overwhelmed with not only the Irish, but also immigrants from other countries. Jobs and adequate housing were both scarce. Irish immigrants settled in lower Manhattan’s Five Points Slum. Irish immigrants crammed rickety tenements perched above a toxic landfill. Sicknesses followed. The desperate conditions gave rise to gang activity, violent crime, prostitution, and child mortality.  This is the location the Irish family in Montana Gold yearns to escape.

A British stereotype that targeted the Irish painted them as ignorant and lazy ‘bog-trotters.’ This prejudice unfortunately followed the Irish to America. Men, regardless of their names, were dubbed ‘Paddy,’ which was an apelike caricature. Women were similarly ridiculed as ‘Bridget.’

Upper-class women being led by police through the Five Points slum: Public domain

Con Walsh, Shane’s cousin and the hero of Stagecoach to Liberty, feels that he brings the slum with him wherever he goes. Shane doesn’t voice this thought, but his actions reveal his agreement. I wanted to show the very real damage that prejudice inflicts. Freeing ourselves from the opinions of others is never easy. Con and Shane must both learn in different ways to rely on God to free them from low self-esteem and the pain of their pasts.

Prejudice stems from beliefs about others that are often untrue. The Forever Sky demonstrates the power of false beliefs. Rob Walsh, Con and Bry’s brother, is certain that the woman he loves will never love him in return. His conviction causes a lot of unnecessary pain.  

Jesus charges believers with two great commandments in Matthew Chapter 22. The first is to love the Lord God with all our hearts, souls, and minds. The second is like it: to love others as ourselves. It is human nature to leap to conclusions. I pray that my thoughts and speech are pleasing to God.