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 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
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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.)
Location. 39° 56.875′ N, 75° 8.512′ W. Marker is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia County. It is in Old City. Marker 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.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other
Photographed By William Fischer, Jr.
2. The Irish Memorial and Markers 5 through 8
Looking WSW from near Chestnut Street and Christopher Columbus Blvd
3. The Irish Memorial / Leacht Cuimhneacháin na nGael
. (Submitted on March 30, 2017, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
Photographed By William Fischer, Jr.
4. Famine Detail on The Irish Memorial Sculpture
Photographed By William Fischer, Jr.
5. Starvation or Emigration Detail on The Irish Memorial Sculpture
Photographed By William Fischer, Jr.
6. Arrival in a New World Detail on the Irish Memorial
Photographed By William Fischer, Jr.
7. The Irish Memorial / Leacht Cuimhneacháin na nGael
Credits. This page was last revised on February 2, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 30, 2017, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. This page has been viewed 246 times since then and 7 times this year. Photos:1. submitted on March 30, 2017, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. 2. submitted on March 29, 2017, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. submitted on March 28, 2017, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.