Old City in Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

Arrival and Reception

Photographed by William Fischer, Jr., March 22, 2017

1. Arrival and Reception Marker

Inscription.

Arrival and Reception. . , The New World was often hostile to this flood of impoverished Irish immigrants. In America's cities, including Philadelphia, they arrived to face the native "Know-Nothing" movement, which defined "American" in terms that excluded the newly arriving Irish as "papists," "foreign paupers," "a motley multitude." Most came from rural, agricultural backgrounds, but they landed in an urban, industrial world. Many had never been more than twenty miles from home before undertaking the hazardous trans-Atlantic journey. Apprehensive, but eager to start a new life in freedom, they disembarked at ports like this one on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. However, when seeking employment, they were often greeted with the message "No Irish Need Apply." Yet, by 1850, eighteen percent of the population of Philadelphia was Irish. , . Attitudes toward the Irish were typified by an English commentator who described Irish immigrants as "more like tribes of squalid apes than human beings." A prominent Philadelphian wrote of the Irish that they had "revolting and vicious habits. Being of the lower order of mankind, they were repellent to those who were further advanced in the social scale." , . Philadelphia historian Dennis Clark summarizes their plight: "The antipathy toward them rested not only on their reputation for violence and their religious difference from the bulk of the city's natives, but also upon their competition for jobs at the lower occupational levels, their menial status, their foreign aspect and clannishness.... To the grievous sufferings of the famine generation were added the cultural and class indictments of a largely hostile public opinion in the country to which they had fled.", [Illustration captions read] , Above: The docks in Southwark, along the Delaware River. Print and Picture Collection, The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1870. , Above right: Irish neighborhoods span the City of Philadelphia and County in 1850. Map compiled from Erin's Heirs, Irish Bonds of Community by Dennis Clark and Map of Philadelphia Ward Boundaries 1830 to 1860.

The New World was often hostile to this flood of impoverished Irish immigrants. In America's cities, including Philadelphia, they arrived to face the native "Know-Nothing" movement, which defined "American" in terms that excluded the newly arriving Irish as "papists," "foreign paupers," "a motley multitude." Most came from rural, agricultural backgrounds, but they landed in an urban, industrial world. Many had never been more than twenty miles from home before undertaking the hazardous trans-Atlantic journey. Apprehensive, but eager to start a new life in freedom, they disembarked at ports like this one on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. However, when seeking employment, they were often greeted with the message "No Irish Need Apply." Yet, by 1850, eighteen percent of the population of Philadelphia was Irish.
• Attitudes toward the Irish were typified by an English commentator who described Irish immigrants as "more like tribes of squalid apes than human beings." A prominent Philadelphian wrote of the Irish that they had "revolting and vicious habits. Being of the lower order of mankind, they were repellent to those

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who were further advanced in the social scale."
• Philadelphia historian Dennis Clark summarizes their plight: "The antipathy toward them rested not only on their reputation for violence and their religious difference from the bulk of the city's natives, but also upon their competition for jobs at the lower occupational levels, their menial status, their foreign aspect and clannishness.... To the grievous sufferings of the famine generation were added the cultural and class indictments of a largely hostile public opinion in the country to which they had fled."

[Illustration captions read]
Above: The docks in Southwark, along the Delaware River. Print & Picture Collection, The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1870.
Above right: Irish neighborhoods span the City of Philadelphia and County in 1850. Map compiled from Erin's Heirs, Irish Bonds of Community by Dennis Clark and Map of Philadelphia Ward Boundaries 1830 to 1860.

Erected 2003 by Concerned Citizens and Organizations. (Marker Number 6.)

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Civil Rights • Government & Politics • Immigration •

Interpretive markers for The Irish Memorial / Leacht Cuimhneacháin na nGael image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Devry Becker Jones (CC0), November 26, 2025

2. Interpretive markers for The Irish Memorial / Leacht Cuimhneacháin na nGael

Settlements & Settlers. A significant historical year for this entry is 1870.

Location. 39° 56.677′ N, 75° 8.625′ W. Marker is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia County. It is in Old City. It is on Chestnut Street east of Front Street, on the right when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 100 Chestnut St, Philadelphia PA 19106, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Southeast Pennsylvania. It is also in the American Northeast

and in the Mid-Atlantic.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy,

New Netherland,

and one of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: The Lessons of The Great Hunger (here, next to this marker); Passage and Emigration (here, next to this marker); An Gorta Mór - Ireland's Great Hunger (here, next to this marker); The Irish in America (here, next to this marker); Starvation (here, next to this marker);