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My Irish Ancestry
Joseph Higgins In 1927 Bridget McNulty and Thomas Higgins arrived in Chicago, Illinois. They came from humble farming communities in western Ireland. Bridget and Thomas met in Chicago and they were married. Now deceased, Bridget and Thomas were my grandparents. They were lured to Chicago by the promise of a steady job and good wages. The first Irish immigrants came to America and eventually to Chicago beginning in the late 1840s during the Great Potato Famine. When the Irish came to Chicago they dug canals, built railroads, butchered livestock, constructed skyscrapers, started political machines, became servants to the rich, and protected the city as police officers and fire fighters. Bridget became a "domestic," or house servant, and Thomas became a laborer with the local transit company. Like other immigrant groups the Irish were not always welcomed. The Chicago Evening Post in 1968 stated, "Scratch a convict or a pauper and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic." Despite opposition and increased nativism the Irish kept coming. By 1900 seventy-five percent of Chicago's population were immigrants. Between 1820 and 1929 nearly forty million immigrants came to the United States. Twelve percent came from Ireland. The Irish population reached its high point in Chicago around 1870 when 13 percent of the population was Irish. One reason the Irish did well in Chicago and elsewhere was because they spoke English. While other immigrant groups had to first master the English language, the Irish hit the ground running. ILLINOIS HISTORY/ DECEMBER 1999 17 The Irish drifted into politics. The local unit of the Catholic church was the parish. The political equivalent became the precinct. The Irish started to organize politically in their parishes. Their organizational skills led to power in a city fragmented by a host of immigrant groups. A look at a list of Chicago mayors during this century includes the surnames Kelly, Kennelly, Byrne, and Daley. Irish politicians prided themselves on getting things done. The Irish Catholic community was the power base for the subsequent growth of the political machine, but it shared the power with other groups. One of the greatest achievements in Irish American history, the election of John F. Kennedy, was partially achieved in the precincts of Chicago by the Daley machine.
Daniel Shallow, my great grandfather, was a Chicago police officer. By the 1890s the majority of the Chicago Police Department was Irish. A review of the names of Chicago police commissioners over the years shows a host of Irish surnames. A key to the Irish identity was their Catholic faith. The politician, the police officer, and the priest were key members of the Irish community and also therefore key members of the city as a whole. Bishops and Archbishops Sheil, Quigley, and Cody had influence well outside the Irish community in Chicago. George Ryan (Governor), James Ryan (Attorney General), Michael Sheehan (Cook County Sheriff), Richard M. Daley (Mayor of Chicago), and Peter Fitzgerald (U.S. Senator) are living proof of the great legacy of the Irish in Chicago and Illinois. The Irish were the first ethnic group to break the English stranglehold on American political control. "No other ethnic group had such a profound impact on American democracy," according to historians Dominic Pacyga and Ellen Skerrett. The Irish have always been extremely proud of their adopted country. George M. Cohan and Jimmy Cagney immortalized the line, "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy born on the fourth of July." My grandfather Thomas Higgins never let an American holiday pass without flying the American flag. Thomas Higgins, Irish immigrant and a very proud American, died on July 4, 1970.— [From: Michael Coffey, The Irish in America; Robert A. Divine, ed., America: The People And the Dream; Melvin G. Holli, Ethnic Chicago; Richard Lindberg, Ethnic Chicago; Eileen M. McMahon, What Parish Are You From?; Dominic A. Pacyga and Ellen Skerrett, Chicago; Bonnie Miller Rubin, Living Chicago's Century; Martin W. Sandler, Immigrants; J. F. Watts, The Irish Americans.] 18 ILLINOIS HISTORY / DECEMBER 1999 |
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