A sense of an ending: late-generation ethnicity and Irish America

ABSTRACT

Irish America today is at a stage of “late generation ethnicity,” designating an ethnic formation that reaches back many generations in the US and is not being significantly replenished from the country of origin. This is not necessarily a terminal state of ethnic affairs, but it is a transitional one, and the analytical challenge is to identify and understand the features and implications of “lateness,” what the sense of an ending means in the Irish American case. This essay will explore this question, drawing on field study among Irish communities in Chicago, and also consider some of the differences in worldview among Irish-Americans, particularly as these pertain to matters of immigration reform and undocumented Irish in the US.

KEYWORDS:

• Irish America
• ethnicity
• Chicago
• undocumented
• immigration reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Quotations from interviews conducted in Chicago between February and June 2017.

2. Greeley, That Most Distressful Nation; Cochrane, The End of Irish America.

3. Gans, “The Coming Darkness.”

4. These current discontents have occasioned many commentaries on the growing conservatism of Irish America. See, for example, Brett, “Conway, Flynn, O’Reilly,” and Gosse, “Why Are All the Conservative Loudmouths Irish American.”

5. Gans, “Ethnic Invention,” 45.

6. Waters, Ethnic Options; and see Alba, Ethnic Identity.

7. Waters, “Social Science,” 131.

8. Gans, “The Coming Darkness,” 757.

9. One of the few academic studies to use a sizeable survey population in recent years is that by Jason Torkelson and Douglas Hartmann, published in 2010. They found that only 14% of the white population asserted an ethnic identity (compared to 27% of non-white Americans), with 46% of these holding what they viewed as a “salient” ethnic identity. Yet, they posit that, “Despite their size, white ethnics nonetheless appear to still constitute a distinguishable grouping compared to their non-ethnic counterparts.” Torkelson and Hartmann, “White Ethnicity,” 1324.

10. Ibid., 762.

11. Ibid., 758.

12. Ibid.

13. Gans, “The End,” 422–23.

14. Sullivan, “I Want To.”

15. This research was partially supported by funding from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I am grateful to Dr Gemma McNulty who assisted with interviews and the survey of Irish Americans in Chicago. I am also grateful for the support and advice provided by Chicago Irish Immigrant Support and the School of Social Work at Dominican University.

16. What is clearly missing from the interviews and survey is a significant representation of young settled Irish Americans of first generation or later. This should not suggest their numbers are negligible, rather they need to be more clearly targeted, they are a cohort meriting further study in terms of their “late” ethnicity and the modalities of “Irishness” they register. The author co-designed a survey aimed at “Irish Americans under 45,” which was disseminated via the Irish Central website in September 2017 and received 1,368 responses. Among findings, it showed an intensive use of social media by young Irish Americans in their engagement with Irish cultures and communities. Further research is now being conducted to deepen and expand this initial survey. See O’Dowd, “First Comprehensive Survey,” and Kennedy, “How Irish America.”

17. United States Census Bureau, 2010.

18. United States Census Bureau, 2015a.

19. See note 17 above.

20. Lumley, “Number of Irish-Americans.”

21. United States Census Bureau, 2015b.

22. United States Census Bureau, 2015.

23. The continued Irish leadership in Chicago politics is estimable but is deeply racialised. In a sense the Irish have been both the first and last white ethnic group of political leverage in Chicago, now a form of default whiteness in a city where ethnicity has given way to race in politics. As McClelland notes of Chicago politics: “In the new, tri-cornered game of ethnic politics – whites, Latinos and blacks – the Irish represent the white faction.” McClelland, “Why the Irish.”

24. McCaffrey, The Irish in Chicago; McMahon, What Parish.

25. O’Gorman, The Irish Fellowship, 3.

26. Ireland Network Chicago.

27. Stevens, “For St. Patrick’s Day.”

28. This is a figure commonly used by Irish immigrant support groups and advocates across the US. It does not have a rigorous statistical basis and has recently been contested publicly by Irish and Irish American sources. See Lynch, “Number of Illegal.”