Extra History

Irish Potato Famine - The American Wake (60x4)

Air date: Mar 09, 2019

Not all of the 214,000 Irish immigrants in 1847 made it safely to their new homes--and of those who did, many faced classism and xenophobia and even bullying from the "Ulster Irish" or "Scots-Irish" folks who had previously established themselves. In New York City specifically, the Five Points neighborhood became an infamous center of conflict--while local Irish-American John Joseph Hughes became instrumental in restoring Irish Catholicism.