Why “No Irish Need Apply” truth is so important for Irish America by Niall O’Dowd

Posted by Jim on August 16, 2015

We need to unashamedly reclaim that legacy for what it is: A magnificent emigrant success story

Rebecca Fried, a 14-year-old Washington, D.C. schoolgirl, has done the Irish American community a great service by exposing the recent myth propelled by a professor that “No Irish Need Apply” signs did not exist except in isolated incidents.

His thesis became accepted fact in many corners of academia — until Rachel Fried took it head on.

As The Washington Post, Smithsonian magazine and the Daily Beast all reported, Rebecca with a simple Google search and some old fashioned research found quite the opposite — including evidence that there were violent incidents around such ads.

Many came in coffin ships. The only emigrants worse off were the blacks from Africa who came in chains.

Yet there has been a loose movement, much of it from academia and revisionist Irish sources, to undermine the reality of the Irish emigrant experience in America.

It is a dangerous precedent, rewriting the history of a people who by any standard faced very hard times when they arrived on America’s shores.

As noted Irish American historian Kerby Miller, author of “Emigrants and Exiles” noted, it was difficult to refute assertions made by Professor Jepsen because many in academia were inclined to believe them because of a cultural bias.

In a week where an Irish bishop compared the plight of drowning African emigrants off Europe’s shores to Ireland’s coffin ships, it seems particularly important to get the historical record straight.

Professor Jepsen in dialogue with Rebecca Fried has refused to acknowledge his paper was incorrect, which seems a very churlish position given the overwhelming evidence.

His refusal makes clear the inherent bias that is indeed there out in academia towards Irish Americans in history.

We need to unashamedly reclaim that legacy for what it is: A magnificent emigrant success story, overcoming huge prejudice and discrimination.

Remember the signs lasted well into the 20th century, yet by 1960 an Irish American was in the White House in the person of JFK.

It was an epic journey and we should never forget the facts. A big thank you to Rebecca Fried for setting the truth free.