Can The Descendants Of Irish Immigrants Turn The Tide Against The Republican Party's Anti-Hispanic Bigots?

There are more than 7 times the number of Irish folks in the U.S. than there are in Ireland-- almost 35 million people. All of them are descendants of immigrants. Over 11% of Americans come from Irish ancestry-- and almost 13% of New Yorkers; on Long Island, the number is over 13%. Adjoining Lake County (Illinois) and Kenosha County (Wisconsin) are high among counties where Irish immigrants are settling today. Lake County is split between conservative New Dem Brad Schneider and an Establishment Republican, Randy Hultgren. Paul Ryan, who has been mouthing some pretty pro-immigration talking points for a conservative Republican, represents every inch of Kenosha County. Right now over 7% of the people who live in Kenosha and the people who live in Lake are of Irish ancestry. In Kenosha just over 7% of the population is of Hispanic ancestry, and in Lake County it's about double that, 14.4%.

Pennsylvania's most racist Congressman Lou Barletta

Last year Ryan was reelected with 55% of the votes district-wide. Kenosha turned out in a very big way for his opponent, Rob Zerban, giving him 52% of the vote. Schneider barely won over incumbent Robert Dold-- who's challenging him to a rematch next year-- 50-50. It was also 50-50 in the Lake County part of the 10th CD-- 101,920 for Schneider and 100,365 for Dold. Hultgren was reelected with 59% district-wide, although in the Lake County portion of the district his margin dropped down to 55%. Obama won Lake County 53-45% and he won Kenosha County 56-43%. Both are good electoral hunting grounds for Democrats. So are the heavily Irish-American counties of eastern Pennsylvania, counties that are crucial to the reelection efforts of Tom Marino, anti-immigration fanatic Lou Barletta (Pennsylvania's version of Steve King), Charlie Dent, Mike Fitzpatrick, Jim Gerlach, Patrick Meehan, Scott Perry and Joe Pitts. If these Republicans don't do well among Irish-American voters, they won't be reelected.

Will Republican Party hostility to immigration reform sour Irish voters on the GOP? Eric Cantor's nonchalant '"we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude on Fox News Sunday probably won't help his party's cause with Hispanic voters... but Irish voters too? According to Irish Central, many Irish-American voters feel strongly about immigration reform and are not unaware of the vicious right-wing bigotry against their antecedents.

The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) has kick started a summer recess campaign to make sure that GOP members hear from the Irish American community on immigration debate.

This campaign is a direct response to the call from the national immigration coalition's request that all pro immigration groups target Republican members of Congress during recess.

As part of this national campaign, ILIR attended the Continental Youth Championships (CYC) sponsored by the Gaelic Athletic Association, in Pennsylvania last weekend.

Thousands of young Irish American athletes and their families attended this four-day sporting event, with people traveling from as far afield as Indiana, Illinois, San Diego, Buffalo, New England, and Pennsylvania.

ILIR was there with an information booth, and engaged with people from nine states with GOP congress members. Each person was provided  with information packs on immigration reform, and with contact information for the GOP Representative from their area.

The president of ILIR, Ciaran Staunton said Pennsylvania is one of the battleground states, with 13 GOP representatives who need to hear from the Irish and Irish American community.

“Please help us help the Irish community,” he said.

Senator John McCain, who sponsored the Senate’s immigration bill, said “I think the month of August is a very important month for voters to meet with their representatives on immigration reform.”

Conservatives, particularly in the South, stereotyped Irish immigrants as inferior, lazy drunks who took jobs from "real" Americans, and many conservatives referred to them as "white Negroes." The Know Nothing Movement-- basically the teabaggers of 1850s-- was, in great part, formed to combat Irish immigration and Irish assimilation. Catholicism was demonized by Nativist Protestant bigots almost everywhere in the U.S. "No Irish need apply" was a very real and very painful attitude meant to hold back the Irish immigrants from making America home.

The Irish were strangers in a strange land: rejected and unwanted. Ads for employment most often included the stipulation that "No Irish Need Apply." They were forced to live in shacks or huts partly due to their poverty but also because of redlining; they were considered to be "bad" for the neighborhood. Further emphasizing their segregation, their living conditions propagated sickness and disease, ushering an early death because health care was unavailable to them. Their dress, illiteracy, and brogue provoked ridicule in the new land, and their unfamiliarity with plumbing and running water brought about scorn and contributed the sicknesses and diseases that killed the majority of newborns.

They were also persecuted for their religious beliefs; they were not only discriminated against because they were Irish, but also because they were Catholics. The general sentiment was to put them on a boat and send them back to Ireland.

...The Irish immigrated to America at a time of great necessity. The country was progressing, and men were needed to do the back breaking work essential to the growth of the country by building railroads, canals, and bridges. This hard and treacherous work was accepted by the Irish out of desperation. The women found work as chamber maid and cooks; at that time, Americans thought this type of work to be demeaning and only fit for servants, but the Irish were cheerful, hard working, honest, and strictly moral.

The Irish have come a long way since then, of course. With the exception of LBJ, every U.S. President starting with John Kennedy has emphasized his Irish roots. Reagan's came from County Tipperary, Clinton's from County Fermanagh and Obama's from County Offaly. (County Antrim gave this country 7 presidents-- Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.) Obviously, not all of them relate their own ancestors' tribulations to those being inflicted on Mexican-American (and other) immigrants today.