A Changing Marriage System

Like for many women of the 19th century, marriage played a large role in the lives of female Irish immigrants before and after they left Ireland. 

Marriage Before Immigration

The stereotypical causes for Irish female immigration tend to be famine, poverty, or following family to America. However, low marriage rates appears to have influenced many women to leave Ireland. 19th century Ireland experienced a change in land tenure that had an adverse effect on marriage for women, especially women of the lower social classes. In post-famine Ireland, "Access to land was a life or death issue for the lower layers of the agricultural community...Those who had it held on to it. Those who were landless were locked out of the system...The pre-famine marriage system revolving around myriads of sub-divided, sublet plots became impracticable" (1). The change in land owning affected young single women just as much as men. In order for families to guarantee their land or their chances of accumulating land, arranged marriages were beginning to replace the more spontaneous marriage (2). 

Due to this change in marriage culture, many young Irish women were finding it difficult to find husbands because, "Under the system of arranged marriages in 19th century Ireland, the bride-to-be brought a dowry to her marriage; ideally land or cash" (3). As a result, marriages grew fewer and fewer for women of the lower classes. As many poor women had neither land nor money, the existence of a dowry system, or lack of a dowry, acted as a "push" factor for young, single Irish women to immigrate to America. 

Irish Women's Letters Home: An Employment Agency

Arguably one of the most important sources available today in order to comprehend the importance of female Irish immigrants are their letters home to loved ones in Ireland. On the surface they appear to tell tales of courage, danger, risk, homesickness, relief, warning, and assimilation; on a deeper level, these letters seem to represent more than a female perspective: they themselves were a "pull" factor that influenced more Irish to immigrate to the United States (1).

N.I.N.A: No Irish Need Apply

When one thinks of Irish immigrant work and occupations in America, four words immediately come to mind: NO IRISH NEED APPLY.

A "Rosy-Cheeked Irish Girl" Makes History

Though Irish immigration peaked during the mid-19th century, thousands of Irish immigrants still flooded the shores of the East Coast. The end of the 19th century saw a drastic change and reform in the ways of immigration. That change was the establishment of the first Federal immigration depot located at the port of Ellis Island in New York Harbor (1). Rather than individual states regulating immigration into the United States, there was now an official port for immigrants to be processed by officials.

Ellis Island circa 1892

Not Your Average Bridget: An Introduction

Next to apple pie and baseball, what is more American than immigration to the United States? America was founded on the courageousness of individuals who left their home countries in order to make this land their own. The presence of different cultures and peoples is what makes the United States of America the diverse and welcoming country that it is. The lure of the "American Dream", accompanied with other driving forces, caused groups of people from Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world to flood the shores of the United States in hopes of making something more for themselves and for their families during the 19th century. Though every group faced hardships in coming to and assimilating in America, arguably no other group faced as much adversity to be overcome than the Irish. History tells us the stories of Irish men; stories of those who met adversity and discrimination in the hopes of finding opportunity. Many failed to overcome their hardships, while many others achieved the goal of the "American Dream". The fate of Irish men in America has not been ignored by history; but what of the women who accompanied these men or came to America on their own accord?