No Irish Need Apply (NINA)
- Helen Walsh Folsom
- Jan 19, 2018
- 2 min read
With the discussion of racism in our country so prominent these days, many believe that "racism" refers to actions against African-Americans only, possibly Hispanics.
Google's dictionary defines racism as "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior."
Unfortunately, African-Americans and Hispanics were not the only "race" that was discriminated within the United States of America borders. The Irish was extremely discriminated for who they were for many decades as well. Potential employers had not compunction or laws to stop them from placing the most classic of all signs in their windows: NINA, No Irish Need Apply.
It was printed so often in the newspapers and on Help Wanted posters that employers simply condensed it to NINA, “NO IRISH NEED APPLY.”
The masculine immigrants driven from Ireland by The Great Hunger in the mid-1800s had created a reputation for being drunk, tough, street fighters and violent trouble makers. Respectable businesses wanted nothing to do with them.
Their womenfolk made fine, hardworking house maids and nannies. However, there were no jobs in the cities for uneducated, iron-fisted, frustrated, desperate Irishmen.
Gradually, they found employment alright. The railroad builders were glad to hire them for “gandy dancers,” pounding iron spikes into railroad ties, and planting hair-trigger dynamite deep into tunnels under mountains. Their broad backs and burly arms dug the Erie Canal. Any job that required stubborn determination, lots of sweat and danger, the Irish were welcomed.
However, by the turn of the 20th century, good Irishmen were filling the need for policemen and firemen, welcome to positions where fearlessness and bull-headed honesty was required. The Irish cop on the beat was depended upon for strict enforcement of the law and friendly assistance, even if he did help himself to an apple off the vendor’s wagon now and then.
Gradually, the Irish-Americans got smart and educated. They began to appear in high places such as political offices and music and movie entertainers. And, didn’t they produce the finest Presidents of the United States?
Though no matter how high the Irish-Americans climbed or fell over the decades, their rough, strenuous beginnings were never forgotten. A song from the nineteenth-century tells it:
Though fools may flout and bigots rave and fanatics may cry
Yet when they want good fighting men, the Irish may apply!
And when for freedom and the right, they raise the battle cry
Then enemy ranks begin to hope, “No Irish need apply.”
One further interesting note is that during World War II, when an African-American regiment was stationed in Ireland, some of the soldiers said that they loved it there. The Irish never called them "Tan Yanks" and girls would even dance with them in the pubs.
--------------
To read more of the Irish Christmas traditions, order my book, "Color Me Green: Ways the Irish Influenced America" by Helen Walsh Folsom.
Over the next several weeks, I will be publishing, with the aid of my daughter, Bettse Folsom, a series of answer & questions & snippets about Ireland that many people have asked me during events where I have attended. If you have a question, please contact me by email and I will be happy to address it.
Thank you for reading my blog!
Comments