Kimberly Davis

HIS 200: Applied History

Southern New Hampshire University

March 1, 2020

The Discrepancies of “No Irish Need Apply”

When the topic of Irish Catholic immigration comes to mind, the dominating

feature is the presence of “No Irish Need Apply” (“NINA”) advertisements and signs. The

image of “NINA” signs has become a central narrative in the history of how America treats

immigrants. Despite the stories passed down through generations of Irish immigrants

detailing the prevalence of this type of advertisement-based discrimination, there is little

evidence that corroborates the reported commonality of the “NINA” signs as an aggressive

form of anti-Catholic-immigrant rhetoric.

While the advertisements did in fact exist, the “No Irish Need Apply” portion

appeared to center not only around religious differences between Protestants and Catholics

but also limited transferable work skills, rather than country of origin. “NINA” created a

myth of victimization in Irish Catholic immigrants that their Protestant counterparts did not

assume.

The purpose of this research is to show that the economic discrimination of Irish

immigrants, while a documented issue facing Irish immigrant populations, existed because of

a lack of education, a lack transferable employment skills of Irish Catholic immigrants in

Northern cities, and the anti-free slave mentality of Irish Catholic immigrants as a

community. During the years 1820 through 1860, America saw an influx of Irish

immigration. Before the year 1845, Irish immigration consisted of financially stable educated

Ulster Presbyterians with an anti-Catholicism mentality which allowed for uncontested

assimilation into the primarily Protestant America (McCaffrey, 2004, p. 1-2). Beginning in

1845 until 1854, more than 1.5 million Irish immigrants sought refuge from the ravages of

the Irish potato famine. This failure of Ireland’s potato crop, the main survival staple within

Irish homes, is also known as “the Great Hunger.”

Most of the Irish immigrants during this period of “the Great Hunger” were

Catholic, uneducated, impoverished, and lacked relevant work experience and skill sets

necessary for assimilation into the Northern cities in which they settled. As most of the Irish-

Catholic immigrants during this period came from an impoverished rural background, many

of the skill sets of the population were negligible in American society, particularly the larger

Northern cities.

The skill sets of the majority of Irish-Catholic immigrants were created and

implemented around living in abject poverty specific to the rural locations of Ireland

(Moloney, 1977, p. 7). Additionally, Irish-Catholic immigration during the later years of the

famine is known as a “refugee exodus”; the Irish-Catholic immigrants during this period

were primarily illiterate in their native language and displayed either no knowledge or

limited knowledge of the English language.