Friends and Neighbours?Friends and Neighbours?

AimsAimsUnderstand some of the hostile views

about the Irish held by ScotsExamine how far such views were

justified.

Success Criteria:

You can: Identify three reasons why the Irish were

regarded with suspicion.Give an argument as to why this was

unfair

There had always been links between Scotland and Ireland and movement of people back and forth between the two countries, what was different in the 19th Century was the scale of immigration.

Henry Cockburn, writing in 1835, thought that this caused very few problems

Source A“ the whole country was overrun by Irish labourers.. New chapels have arisen peaceably everywhere and except for their stronger taste for a fight now and then, the Irish have behaved fully as well as our own people.”

On the other hand the immigrants’ arrival in Scotland wasn’t always welcomed. This was their reception in Greenock in 1828

Source B

A party of idle blackguards on the quay commenced an unprovoked attack upon them, calling them 'Paddies' and throwing stones. A score of the boldest Irish sallied (went) forth, flourishing their shillelaghs (clubs) and soon cleared the quay. This brought an increased crowd of townspeople who resumed the assault:: stones, pieces of coal flew in all direction. 

Undoubtedly the huge numbers of famine victims coming to Scotland in the 1840s had an even greater negative effect...

The Glasgow Herald reported

Source C  “They are landed by

thousands, since the Irish famine by tens of thousands and just like sheep, at sixpence a head. Our hospitals are filled with them, our police are overwrought by them, our people are robbed and murdered by them.”

This view of the Irish as violent criminals, filling local jails, was common, some of it justified, as in this report by a police superintendent for the Gorbals.

Source D “Of the persons brought before our court I should suppose that about two thirds are Irish, principally for assaults and for being drunk and disorderly. The Irish fight both in the street and in the home.”

The Irish were strangers in a strange land, a different religion, different language and culture.

They were poor and often attracted a lot of hostility and blame for everything from being a burden on the poor law to drunkenness and disease.As you can see from the source below they were held in very low regard.

Source E“Their vile slang and immoral habits have seriously injured the character of the poor population of Dundee and I think, throughout Scotland. The low Irish are not a very improvable race. They cling to their rags, their faith and their filth.”

They were also blamed for taking Scottish houses, jobs and for falling wage rates.

In 1849 the Ayr Advertiser reported:

Source FBy their great numbers they have either lessened the pay (of Scots) or totally deprived thousands of the working people of Scotland (of work). There can be no doubt that their contact with the Scotch has not been for the benefit of the latter. In the county of Ayr these facts are brought home by the wretched appearance of once comfortable localities and by the great increase in spirit dealers.

 

The Irish clung to their separate communities, and encouraged by the Catholic church there was less intermarriage.

As a result the Catholic Irish identity of the community became more pronounced.

Scots Protestants leaders were often very hostile towards Irish Catholics and their beliefs.

In a Protestant journal of 1851 a writer argued:

Source G“If the hopes of Popery to regain her dominion of darkness in this kingdom of Bible light are beginning to revive it is because she is colonising our soil from another land with hordes of her enslaved victims.”

.

Source H“Roman Catholics cannot be absorbed into the Scottish race. They remain a people by themselves, segregated (separated) by reason of their race, their customs, their traditions and, above all, by their loyalty to their church.”As a result of this hostility anti-Catholic meetings erupted into riots in Greenock and Gourock in 1851 and 1852

However religious violence was usually between the Catholic and Protestant Irish

Source I“The rows of the Irish are chiefly among themselves between the Catholics and the Protestants.”

Not everyone thought the Irish a menace:Source J

“ It is gratifying to be able to state that the workers employed on the line in our neighbourhood, a considerable number of whom are Irish, have conducted themselves all along with the greatest propriety (good behaviour).”(Report on the Burntisland-Kirkcaldy Line, the ‘Northern Warder’, 8 February 1847)

And there was some sympathy when the Irish themselves came under attack from Scots

Source K “A mob of 2000 assembled in Airdrie for the

purpose of committing some outrage (attack) on the Catholic inhabitants and, instead of the latter receiving the protection from the authorities to which, as peaceable inhabitants they were entitled, they were left to themselves.”

The Irish and Scots had a lot more in common than differences.

Despite their reputation as strike breakers the Irish joined the trade union movement and worked together with Scots workers to improve working conditions

Scots and Irish both experienced the same changes affecting society in the 19th century, the rapid growth of towns and cities, migrant populations, slum conditions and the struggle to make ends meet.

Both groups had the same desire to improve their lives through education, self help and improvement.