Before the Irish Immigrants affected America, they immigrated to it. About 17% of the Irish immigrants came to America before the 1840s. Because of the Irish potato famine, most of the Irish immigrants arrived in America between 1845 to 1860. The Irish potato famine, or The Great Potato Famine, was caused by a late blight on potato crops year after year, starting in 1845 and slowing down by 1851. The blight, scientifically known as Phytophthora infestans, infects the leaves and edible…
the Irish Catholics in Ireland. Some of the laws included preventing the Irish Catholics from holding public office, limiting their rights to education, buying and selling land, bearing arms, serving in the army, obtaining certain jobs, or voting. These weren’t the only things the British took away from the Irish, they also decided to reform Ireland by eliminating the original Gaelic traditions and replacing them with British ways of life. These restrictions and limitations caused the Irish to…
Houlihan is a mythological female figure who represents Irish nationalism in literature and art. In the play Cathleen ni Houlihan written by William Butler Yeats and Lady August Gregory, she is personified as an old, suffering woman, representing Ireland’s oppression by the English. Cathleen and the martyred Saint Joan of Arc, as represented in George Bernard Shaw’s play Saint Joan, share strong similarities. Significantly, Maud Gonne, the original Irish actress chosen to portray Cathleen on…
The Irish American culture is family-oriented, respectful, and hard working. When interviewing 86-year-old W.E., I learned what Irish Americans' views and practices are to prevent illness, promote wellness and maintain health. I also learned about the different foods Irish Americans eat and what folk medical remedies are significant to W.E. Religion is an important part of the Irish culture but when W.E. and his family suffered a tragic loss, he questioned his faith. I was influenced by the…
A Modest Proposal is an essay by Jonathan Swift of the 18th century. It is a satirical essay that talks about an argument that says infant children should be sold for their meat. Ireland needs a simple solution to help its poor population. The streets of Ireland are full of beggars, and they are mostly women beggars with children that struggle to find something to eat. The poor parents in Ireland spend all their time trying to find something to feed their large families. Even with all the…
In the essay A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift written in 1729, a proposal is demonstrated by Jonathan for preventing the children of unfinancially stable people in ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and making them beneficial to the public. As sarcastic and unproportionately disturbing his suggestions are, poverty had a key role into the written essay proving exaggerated solutions to add humor and his own personality to grab attention from readers so they can address…
(Swift 230). Instead of proposing a logical and practical solution, however, the Proposer offers a horrifying plan: selling the babies of poverty-stricken families into the food market to lessen the number of beggars on the street. With the majority of Irish children being used for food consumption and a small percentage retained for breed, overpopulation would no longer be an issue and the upper-class would have a constant food source. The Proposer goes on to list even more advantages of this…
(www.poetryfoundation.com)(www.biography.com) When Heaney was eleven he was granted a scholarship from Saint Columb's College in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, so he took it and left his father's farm. As Heaney was growing up, he was introduced to Irish, English, and American literature and exposed to artists such as Patrick Kavanaugh, Robert Frost, and Ted Hughes.…
Both Jonathan Swift and John Gay’s works have the same characteristic: the use of satire as a way to provoke a reaction in their readers. In A Modest Proposal, wrote by Swift, is a clear example of a satirical pamphlet. Due to the arise of the journalism and the newspapers, pamphlets became quite popular at that time, and Swift uses this layout to give his proposal more relevance and importance, and to take it serious, like the information in any other pamphlet. The satire is explicit right…
Ireland lead the unity of the Irish people to a an altercation, one that is grieved upon amongst Irish history. Since the 1700's, Irish nationalists stressed about the necessity to withdrawal any British rule or influence from what they believed to be their own, God-given country. The British were a powerful empire that took advantage of their size and strength to control foreign lands. Ireland was in a state of servitude to the British. Throughout the centuries, Irish natives experienced…