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From a few hundred residents in the 1830s, Chicago emerged as the fourth largest Irish city in America by 1860. Unlike their counterparts in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, however, Chicago’s Irish grew up with their city and exerted influence out of proportion to their numbers. Irish labor—first on the Illinois & Michigan Canal (1836–1848) and later on the lumber wharves, railroads, stockyards, and steel mills—contributed to Chicago’s phenomenal growth from frontier town to urban metropolis. As Chicago became even more ethnically and racially diverse, the Irish continued to be well represented at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and city government, especially the police force, fire department, and public school system.
凭借19世纪30年代的几百个居民居民，芝加哥一跃成为全美第四大爱尔兰城市。不过，与纽约、波士顿、费城的爱尔兰人不同，芝加哥的爱尔人都是土生土长的，影响力更是不可同日而语。1836年到1848年期间，爱尔兰老公从伊利诺伊河与密歇根运河开始，沿着码头、铁路、畜牧、工厂等等行业，最终协助芝加哥完成了从边境小镇到大都市的成长。尽管后来芝加哥其他族裔不断扩大，但不管在宗教还是行政管理，尤其警队、消防与公立学校系统中，爱尔兰人始终都是最高级别。
As a result of five potato crop failures beginning in 1845, Ireland lost nearly one million of its people to disease and poverty and 1.5 million more to emigration. After the famine, changes in inheritance laws and land-use patterns made emigration the only option for generations of young men and women. In sharp contrast to the migration of German, Polish, and Jewish families and Italian men, Irish women often traveled alone or with groups of female relatives. Chicago’s foreign-born Irish population peaked at 73,912 in 1900, but immigration continued steadily until the Immigration Act of 1924 reduced to 18,000 the number of Irish men, women, and children allowed into the United States each year. More restrictive quotas in 1929 and the Great Depression brought Irish immigration to a virtual halt until the 1950s. The last great wave of Irish migration to the United States, during the 1980s, included upwards of 36,000 undocumented immigrants, many university-trained men and women who settled permanently in Boston and Chicago. Because recent legislation has made it more difficult for them to obtain work permits and to adjust their status in the United States without incurring heavy penalties, they have taken jobs once reserved for unskilled immigrants: nannies, domestic workers, bartenders, waitresses, and construction workers.
从1845年开始，因为5次马铃薯歉收导致的饥荒，有100万爱尔兰人死于贫困，另外150万爱尔兰人则死于移民。饥荒之后，由于爱尔兰的遗产继承法与土地使用要求不断变化，移民就成了爱尔兰年青一代唯一的选择。与德国、波兰、犹太家庭或者意大利男性等移民形成鲜明对比的是，爱尔兰女性经常独自出行，或与女性亲属共同履行。1900年境外怀孕然后在芝加哥生育的外国爱尔兰人达到峰值，出生数为73912人，之后便趋于稳定。1924年美国移民法案通过后，每年允许进入美国的爱尔兰开始减少到18000人。1929年由于经济大萧条与愈加严苛的配额制度，让爱尔人移民逐渐停止，直到50年代才逐渐恢复。上世纪80年代，最后一波爱尔兰移民潮为美国带来了包括无证移民在内的36000多爱尔兰移民，许多受过大学教育的爱尔兰人永久定居在了波士顿和芝加哥。由于法律原因，他们难以取得工作许可，为了不受重罚，他们不得不从事那些为非技术移民保留的工作，如保姆、家政工人、酒保、女服务员和建筑工人。
Although the first wave of Irish immigrants to Chicago included many Protestants, they soon distanced themselves from their poorer, Catholic countrymen. In the 1850s and 1860s, for example, Chicago Tribune publisher Joseph Medill—the son of Ulster Presbyterians—routinely equated Irish with Catholic in his newspaper’s coverage of city crime, poverty, politics, and Irish nationalism. Yet the intended slur had just the opposite effect: it deepened the connection between ethnic identity, Catholicism, and nationalism. In the 1860s, Chicago was a hotbed of Fenian activity. Significantly, the battle for Irish freedom did not divide Roman Catholics into separate parishes as nationalism divided Chicago’s Polonia. On the contrary, parishes provided support through chapters of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Land League, and later, the Friends of Irish Freedom.
尽管第一批移民者中有很多新主教徒，但他们很快就与贫穷的天主教徒疏远了。举个例子，19世纪5、60年代，阿尔斯特长老会的儿子Joseph Medill就在其出版发行的《芝加哥论坛报》中将爱尔兰人等同于天主教徒，并指责他们为芝加哥带来犯罪、贫困、政治与爱尔兰民族主义。然而，这诽谤带来了反面效果：它加深了爱尔兰人之间的种族认同、天主教宗教认同和民族主义的联系。19世纪60年代，芝加哥简直就是芬尼亚活动①的温床。需要注意的是，爱尔兰自由之战不仅没能分裂爱尔兰族群，反而是民主主义让波罗尼亚族裔在芝加哥历史中逐渐抬头。与之相反的是，爱尔兰的古老秩序、土地联盟和后来的爱尔兰独立战争让当地爱尔兰人更加紧密地联系在一起。
①芬尼亚（Fenian）一词是芬尼亚兄弟会（Fenian Brotherhood）和爱尔兰共和兄弟会（Irish Republican Brotherhood）的总称，这是一个致力于在19世纪和20世纪初建立独立的爱尔兰共和国的兄弟组织。
The Chicago Irish are perhaps best known for their political skills in winning elections and creating a multiethnic Democratic machine. Never a majority among immigrants in the city, the Irish enjoyed a distinct advantage thanks to their knowledge of the English language and the British system of government. Chicago’s twelve Irish mayors have governed for more than 80 years. Other legendary Irish politicians include “Honest John” Comiskey (father of White Sox owner Charles Comiskey), “Hinky Dink” Kenna, “Bathhouse John” Coughlin, “Foxy Ed” Cullerton, and Johnny Powers (the nemesis of social reformer Jane Addams).
芝加哥爱尔兰人最出名的地方他们建立了一个多种族政治机制并凭借其赢得选举。尽管人数从不占优，但凭借对英语以及对英国制度的了解，他们所占优势也更为明显。12位爱尔兰市长执政芝加哥80多年，其他爱尔兰传奇政治家包括绰号“Honest John”的Comiskey（芝加哥白袜棒球队老板Charles Comiskey的父亲），绰号“Hinky Dink”的Kenna，绰号“Bathhouse John”的Coughlin，绰号“Foxy Ed”的Cullerton，以及Johnny Powers（社会改革家Jane Addams的宿敌）②。
②Michael Kenna，也称为“Hinky Dink”，是一位美国政治家，曾在1897年至1923年担任芝加哥第一选区的市议员，并在1939年至1943年再次担任市议员。除了担任市议员外，他还在1893年至1944年期间担任第一选区的民主党委员。
John Joseph Coughlin，也称为“Bathhouse John”， 从1892年起担任芝加哥第一选区的市议员，直至去世。他代表了芝加哥卢普区以及后来的周边地区，代表了通常被称为“世界上最富有的选区”的地方。
Jane Addams（1860～1935)，美国女社会改良家及和平主义者，致力于改善社会状况，争取妇女、黑人权利人共获1931年诺贝尔和平奖。
While politics and nationalism contributed to the high profile of Chicago’s Irish, these tended to be male-dominated activities. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, with its extensive networks of parishes, schools, hospitals, and charitable institutions, directly affected and involved the lives of thousands of Irish women and children as well as adult men. William Quarter, the first of nine bishops of Irish birth or descent to head the Chicago diocese since 1843, regarded Catholic institutions as essential to the well-being of immigrants and the larger city. At the same time he organized St. Patrick’s for the Irish in 1846, he founded St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s for the city’s Germans. A pragmatic response to ethnic diversity, national-language and territorial parishes became distinguishing features of Chicago Catholicism. Moreover, Catholic schools contributed to the growth and development of the larger city. University of St. Mary of the Lake, dedicated on July 4, 1846, was Chicago’s first institution of higher learning, and Saint Xavier Academy, founded by the Irish Sisters of Mercy in 1846, enrolled more Protestants than Catholics in its early years.
尽管政治与民主主义让爱尔兰人颇为高调，但这些都是男性主导的活动。另一方面，天主教徒通过教区、医院、学校和慈善机构组成的网络，直接或间接地影响了成千上万的爱尔兰妇女、儿童和成年男子的生活。1843年以来第一位具有爱尔兰血统且担任芝加哥教区主教的William Quarter认为天主教会对移民和大城市来说至关重要。William Quarter不仅为爱尔兰人建造了St. Patrick教堂，还为芝加哥的德国移民建造了St. Peter和St. Joseph教堂。对种族多样性、民族语言和地域教区的务实回应成为芝加哥天主教的特色。此外，天主教学校也促进了城市发展。1846年7月4日成立的圣玛丽湖畔大学是芝加哥创办的第一所高等学府。而同一年由爱尔兰慈悲修女创办的圣泽维尔学院所收的早期生徒中，则是新主教图多于天主教徒。
Irish women religious played a crucial role in Chicago Catholicism, staffing hundreds of parish schools in the diocese, financing academies, high schools, colleges, hospitals, and schools of nursing. Agatha O’Brien, a working-class immigrant from County Carlow, Ireland, and her Mercy Sisters taught school, operated an employment bureau for Irish women, established Chicago’s first orphanage, ran the city’s first hospital, and nursed victims of the cholera epidemic of 1849. In 1851 they staffed the Illinois General Hospital of the Lakes, incorporated as Mercy Hospital in 1852. Along with St. Xavier’s, predominantly Irish female religious orders founded Barat College in Lake Forest (the Religious of the Sacred Heart), Rosary College in River Forest and Mundelein College (the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary). While these schools operated independently of the Archdiocese, they drew many of their students and faculty from local Irish parishes. The same held true for Chicago’s two largest Catholic universities. Loyola University in Rogers Park traces its origins to the Jesuit parish of Holy Family in 1870, and DePaul University began in 1898 in St. Vincent de Paul parish in Lincoln Park.
爱尔兰女性教徒在芝加哥天主教活动中承担了极为重要的角色，她们为教区数百所的学校、医院，还有护理学校提供资金。来自爱尔兰卡洛郡的工人阶级移民Agatha O’Brien与同为老师的女教徒们为爱尔兰女性开办了就业机构，建立了芝加哥第一个孤儿院，开办了芝加哥第一所医院来医治照料1849年霍乱流行期间的病人。1851年，他们为伊利诺伊州湖区总医院工作，1年后该医院于被注册成为慈善医院。与圣泽维尔学院同期的巴拉特圣心学院、多米尼加大学和曼德林学院都由爱尔兰女教徒创办。尽管这些大学都独立于教区运作，但还是吸引了不少当地的爱尔兰老师与学生，哪怕芝加哥最大的两所天主教大学也是如此——洛约拉大学起源于1870年的耶稣会神圣家庭教区，而德保罗大学则在1898年始建于圣文森特德保罗教区的林肯公园。
Since the 1840s, church building enabled Chicago’s Irish Catholics to create community and leave their imprint on the urban landscape. While Irish parishes often looked to prominent Protestant and German American architects to create Gothic and Romanesque structures, they also patronized Irish and Irish American architects. Fifty years after its dedication as their mother church, St. Patrick’s, built at Adams and Desplaines Streets in 1856, had become the old neighborhood parish for the Chicago Irish. Yet thanks to the genius of artist Thomas A. O’Shaughnessy, St. Patrick’s was transformed, between 1912 and 1922, into the best-known example of Celtic Revival Art in America. Drawing inspiration from the ninth-century illuminated manuscript known as the Book of Kells, O’Shaughnessy created luminescent stained-glass windows and interlace stencils. Restored to their original beauty in 1996, O’Shaughnessy’s designs continue to challenge conventional notions of Irish identity and sacred space.
Because they spoke English, the Irish had little need to create institutionally complete ethnic communities like Chicago’s Polonia or German Nord-Seite. However, for the vast majority of Chicago’s Irish, estimated at nearly 300,000 by 1890, parishes remained the focal point of their lives and their neighborhoods. Staffed by priests and nuns of Irish birth and descent, these parishes played a vital role in mediating tensions between ethnic, Catholic, and American identities. While early Irish parishes were overwhelmingly working-class, by the 1880s middle-class parishes flourished in outlying neighborhoods such as Lincoln Park, Lake View, Oakland, Hyde Park, Englewood, and Austin. In contrast to the national parishes of Chicago’s Poles, Germans, Bohemians, Lithuanians, Italians, and Slovaks that remained clustered near industrial districts, the mile-square territorial parishes of the Irish kept pace with the development of Chicago, often following new streetcar lines and rapid transit. In 1906, for example, the Chicago Irish claimed 83 of the city’s 173 parishes. By the time the Great Depression of the 1930s halted new residential construction, Irish Catholics had built massive parish complexes along Chicago’s boulevards as well as in new bungalow belts and apartment house districts. Although parishes established after World War II tended to be more ethnically diverse, many remained distinctly Irish.
Parishes and schools not only paralleled the growth of Chicago, they contributed to the social and geographic mobility of the Irish. Nowhere was this clearer than for the daughters of the famine generation. Amelia Dunne Hookway, for example, was born in St. Patrick’s parish in 1858 and attended the high school run by the Daughters of Charity. She moved steadily through the ranks of the public school system, from classroom teacher in 1880 to her election as principal of the Howland School in the North Lawndale neighborhood in 1896. As an independent wage earner, Amelia not only contributed to the Dunne family’s prosperity, she also influenced their choice of residence in the city. Indeed, in a twist on immigrant migration patterns, journalist Finley Peter Dunne moved from neighborhood to neighborhood so that his sisters, Amelia, Kate, and Mary, could be near the schools in which they worked.
For Chicago’s Germans, Bohemians, Poles, Italians, and Lithuanians, the ethnic press played a large role in keeping identity alive. With the exception of the Chicago Citizen, edited by firebrand nationalist John F. Finerty, and the New World, the official newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese, the Irish relied on the daily papers that employed so many of their sons and daughters. International correspondent Margaret Buchanan Sullivan was Chicago’s best-known reporter in the 1870s and 1880s. And in the 1890s, Finley Peter Dunne achieved national notoriety and literary fame as the creator of “Mr. Dooley,” the saloonkeeper-philosopher of Archey Road. Irish American journalists also followed the activities of prizefighters John L. Sullivan and “Gentleman” Jim Corbett and labor leaders such as Michael Donnelly, a skilled butcher who led the drive to unionize the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen at the turn of the century; Margaret Haley, president of the Chicago Teachers Federation; and John Fitzpatrick, head of the Chicago Federation of Labor from 1905 to 1946. Chicago’s Catholic labor priests and their outspoken bishop Bernard J. Sheil provided critical support for unions in the 1930s and 1940s and laid the groundwork for the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council. Under the leadership of Saul Alinsky and Joseph Meegan, who had grown up in the Irish parish of St. Cecilia, this grassroots community group became a model for the nation. Irish Americans also played a prominent role in promoting racial justice, through such groups as Friendship House (1942) and the Catholic Interracial Council (1945).
Since the 1890s, the city’s Irish have played a leading role in the cultural revival of traditional music and dance here and abroad. Francis O’Neill, a native of Tralibane, County Cork, Ireland, and chief of police in Chicago from 1901 to 1905, is widely credited with preserving Irish traditional tunes passed down orally for generations. He drew on the talents of fellow Chicago Irish policemen-musicians in compiling O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903), still a standard reference work in Ireland and America. Among Chicago’s best-known Irish musicians today is fiddler and composer Liz Carroll, the daughter of Irish immigrants, who has won the All-Ireland award twice since 1975. Likewise, Noel Rice’s music students at the Academy of Irish Music (1994) have achieved acclaim both in the United States and Ireland. The popularity of Irish dancing also has soared, thanks to such innovators as Mark Howard, founder and artistic director of the Trinity Irish Dance Company (1990), and Michael Flatley, who grew up in Little Flower parish on Chicago’s South Side and trained in the Dennehy School of Irish Dance. No longer confined to parish auditoriums, Irish traditional dance now attracts international audiences through such lavish productions as Riverdance and Flatley’s Lord of the Dance, a mixture of Celtic mythology and rock and roll.
Equally important for the persistence of Irish ethnicity has been the scholarly work of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS). Organized in 1960 by Lawrence J. McCaffrey of Loyola University, Emmet Larkin of the University of Chicago, and the late Gilbert Cahill of the State University of New York–Cortland, ACIS is now the nation’s foremost interdisciplinary organization promoting the study of Irish and Irish American literature, history, language, political thought, culture, and art.
In addition to supporting the Irish American Heritage Center (1976) in the Irving Park Community Area of Chicago and Gaelic Park in suburban Oak Forest, the Chicago Irish have preserved a sense of place and identity through their network of parishes. Although some of Chicago’s historic Irish churches and schools have fallen to the wrecking ball, others have become well-known African American parishes. After more than 150 years, the Chicago Irish are still an influential ethnic group, and their visibility is especially strong around St. Patrick’s Day. Indeed, in recent years, the South Side Irish parade on Western Avenue has rivaled the traditional downtown parade in size and influence.
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