This “American Wake” was common, even expected, among families of emigrants. It was a funeral for Erin, as chances were she would never return to Ireland again. Even if Erin had decided to emigrate to Australia she still would have had an “American Wake” – but it was to America she was headed and it was for th

Moving into a new home was a celebrated event for a family. This is well illustrated in Katherine E. Conway’s story, Lalor’s Maples, published in 1901. The story is about the rise to middle-class respectability as experienced by the Lalor family. To celebrate the success as a contractor John Lalor builds a new house on Baychester’s best street, River Avenue, which was a popular destination for newly wealthy Irishmen. The children especially look forward to moving into their new position and watch each detail of the construction. The completion of the house is the symbol of Lalor’s social status, one visible for his neighbors to see. As a result they are showy in their building of a mansion of grand scale and ostentatious decoration. This only seemed right, for “...John Lalor’s rapid progress was a matter of local pride...Progress to the Avenue had been marked heretofore in the child-lives at least, by such a surrounding of old ties – the distance of a few squares and the playmates of the new environment inevitably estranging the migrates from their previous associations...” (D).

San Francisco was not the only city where Irish Catholic success stories occurred. St. Louis was also a haven for adventurous immigrants and by 1900 the Irish in St. Louis had grown in wealth, prestige, and acceptance (C p. 139-40). Not only the ethnicity of St. Louis helped the Irish to fare well, but the fact that it was founded as a French Catholic village played a large role in the social acceptance of the Irish. The Catholic church also provided a parochial education for the Irish. This not only increased the educational levels in immigrants but helped them surge ahead of other immigrants, particularly the Germans. Meagher’s study reveals that when the Irish arrived in St. Louis they could only obtain lower-class positions while the Germans started in lower middle-class positions. With improved education a reverse occurred and the Irish steadily moved into middle-class while the Germans largely remained at the same level. Irish women in particular fared well. In 1890 they were over-represented among servants and laundresses but in 1900 they had graduated to telephone operators, teachers, typists and bookkeepers (C p. 147).

The Irish seemed to be stuck in the same position they had fled from. The Anglo-Saxon Protestants controlled the economic system and despised the Irish. The working class Anglo-Saxon’s followed suit, but their hate was largely because of the fear of job competition. Unsuccessful in crossing these class and ethnic lines, the Irish ghettos served as a psychological bastion and helped to preserve the traditions and values they had grown up with. As the Irish moved up into the ranks of skilled laborers, they tended to leave the ghettos and move toward the pinnacle of American success: a new home. The new immigrants, especially women, were facilitated in this move because of their education, and, like Erin, were able to find decent jobs that paid well enough.

Some topics in this essay:
Erin America, River Avenue, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Ellis Island, , Frog Bread, St Louis, Klux Klan, Ohio Illinois, Catholic Church”, native americans, st louis, ghettos helped, irish moved, irish arrived, arrived america, own home, san francisco, irish catholic, irish immigrants, irish arrived america,