[ilbegone]

I have been looking into the Irish in America centering around Five Points in New York, (the setting of the film Gangs of New York which seems to have the agenda of turning a multifaceted history into modern judgment of American nativists discriminating against immigrants, think of turning a complex Einstein equation into the old second grade counting man with the digits of his hands representing 1s, 10s, and 100s.The film is considered as a documentary by many straw clutching Latino activists and their followers).

While there are general parallels with the current influx from south of the border, there are some differences too.

This is, again, simplified and condensed to my understanding.

The Irish Potato famine was a terrible thing indeed - people did starve to death and die from diseases on a massive scale, and many were too weak or didn't have seed potatoes to plant when the potato fungus spent itself. - and those people were already impoverished due to overpopulation and land rent rising to meet the demand before the famine. Some British landlords were more humane than others and attempted to feed their tenants during the crisis, but it became more economical to offer to pay for passage to Canada and the United States.

From descriptions of Irish who survived the voyage disembarking in the new world, I am reminded of pictures of newly freed WWII concentration camp inmates. The largest parallel I can draw to Mexico concerning migration to America is the senseless killing and other hardships placed on Mexicans during the Revolution, with Chihuahuan (the area I'm most familiar with revolutionary history) civilians placed in an impossibly terrible situation towards the end. Starvation does not seem to be a problem in Mexico during the last 60 years, the motivation seems to be for money and a version of materialism.

Wages were low and living conditions in five points were terrible, but there is quite a bit of evidence that many managed to save money and send remittances to relatives in Ireland, some of which financed further movement.

Political power in five points was derived from Patronage. Saloon keepers and grocers were the most well known (and could persuade in many ways, including holding back on needed items if the customer didn't have the "proper" views but promising jobs if elected) and when elected to political positions had their supporters hired into city jobs, such as the fire department, Police, and city maintenance. City employment was a vital stepping stone for political advancement. Except for very few examples, those of the Irish who were successful with politics were born in the US or were brought too young to remember Ireland.

To be hired into city service required delivering the vote of either a tenement or maybe an entire block. They had to be street fighters who were also used to back down political opposition at the polls and otherwise. Lots of political gang fights.

City officials would intercede in criminal charges concerning their faithful, and on occasion put out a form of public assistance to loyal voters.

Again, a lot of this seems to boil down to religion. Protestants tended to be Whigs (a "liberal" leftover from the Puritan part of England), Catholics tended to be Democrat, very loosely an heir to Colonial and English civil war Tories (reactionary conservatives) ("liberal" and "conservative" might have somewhat different meanings in 19th century America, as they did in 19th century Mexico where "Conservative might have been "royalist" and "liberal" might have meant "anti-royalist").

The 1842 riot seems to have been over tiff about protestant monopoly of education, which painted Catholicism in an unfavorable light.

In fact, in what is again a 17th century leftover from the English Civil war concerning Puritan England and Pro Catholic English King Charles I, Irish immigration was seen by quite a few Americans as a Vatican plot to undermine the US government and impose Catholicism in America. As well, there were long simmering resentments of the English protestant subjugation of Ireland. Immigrant Germans and immigrant Jews of Five Points (or German immigrants at large in America attempting to resist assimilation) didn't seem to inspire the friction that is evident between descendents of English settlers and Irish immigrants - this was a centuries old inherited religious fight originating in the British isles carried over to 19th century America, not at all about modern white Americans discrimination (hyped or not) against Mexican migrants and their descendants as Gangs of New York indirectly implies.

I believe by the 1850's descendants of Irish immigrants completely took over Tammany Hall and wielded the political machine with impunity. Once again, faithful soldiers were rewarded with steady public jobs and were expected to violently support the puppeteers to political ends ("vote right or get a busted head" and physically driving off opposition), those who voted "right" were tossed some carrots, ballot boxes were stuffed ("what do I care when I count the votes"), and the machine used the police and courts to reward supporters and punish opposition. The puppeteers themselves grew wealthy by embezzlement and inside deals.

And the machine was of the Democrat party, the party of 19th century slavery and pre-1960 segregation.