(above) a view of one of the largest factories/mills in North Adams

Morgan, Jack. 2009. “Among Cromwell’s Children: The Irish and Yankee New England.” New Hibernia Review 89-107.

Morgan’s article explains the anti-Irish sentiment of native New Englanders pre-Civil War as mostly a struggle between nativist sentiment versus immigrants (Yankees being natives and Irish being newer immigrants) and Protestants versus Catholics (Yankees being Protestant and Irish being Catholic). He goes on to explain that rising numbers of Irish around the mid 1800s, their fighting in the Civil War, and the emergence of several respectable figureheads in the intellectual and political communities lead to a softening in attitude. Although there was still pushback when agrarianism was supplanted by industrialism and Irish immigrants took work in factories. Eventually many intellectuals became more exposed to Catholicism and Celtic culture and helped soften Protestant Nativism, and the Irish became viewed as an infusion of energy and culture into a stagnating Protestant Yankee culture.

Morgan’s writing is clearly directed towards those who have an extensive background in New England and Europe history, and there are whole paragraphs that are nearly incomprehensible to the uninformed.

This article provided a background and general timeline from the main influx of Irish immigrants in the 1800s to their general acceptance just before the 1900s, as well as illuminating the Protestant versus Catholic conflict and Irish contributions to New England culture. This article is very useful for exploring the main reasons that the Irish came into conflict with the New Englanders, as well as how they eventually came to be accepted.