The Potato Crisis and the Irish Immigration to America

Kacsó, Sándor (2000) The Potato Crisis and the Irish Immigration to America. Masters, Szegedi Tudományegyetem.

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Abstract

In my thesis I try to find the answer to the question of why so many successful American people are of Irísh origin. My research showed me that the following factors were mainly responsible for this: the concept of family, religion, and the Great Famine. Of these the Great Famine plays the greatest role in my work but it is preceded by a part about ancient Ireland in order to draw a picture about the Irish stereotype and the importance of family. The following part is about the development of Catholicism and its role in Irish society as the Catholic Church would play a very important role during and after the immigration to America. The Great Famine with its precedents and consequences is described later. One part also includes England's solution for the crisis as this 'solution' became the main reason for the loss of one million lives. After describing the circumstances of the immigration the thesis deals with the Irish in America and their hardships and later success. This is the point where the threads of the thesis come together and the previous parts reveal their real relevance. We will conclude that the success of the Irish-Americans in many fields of life can be explained by the Potato Crisis. IrishAmerican politicians lived with the memory of the Famine and this induced them to become the voice of the poor. The memory of the Famine motivated the Irish-Amerícans to prove to the world that they are as good as any other nationality. Although at the end of the thesis we will see that after the second half of the 19th century the strong Irish national identity begins to weaken. This mirrors the situation in much of the modern world. Until that time the memory of the Famine, the Catholic religion and the concept of family helped the Irish to defend their interests against the 'native' Americans.

Institution

Szegedi Tudományegyetem

Faculty

Gyula Juhász Teacher Training College

Department

Angol Tanszék

Discipline

Teacher Training

Specialization

angol

Supervisor(s)

Supervisor
Supervisor scientific name label
Email
EHA
Borbás, Tibor
UNSPECIFIED
UNSPECIFIED
UNSPECIFIED

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: 05. Social sciences > 05.03. Educational sciences
Depositing User: Szerkesztő JGYPK
Date Deposited: 2019. Jun. 04. 06:59
Last Modified: 2019. Jun. 04. 13:35
URI: https://diploma.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/76809

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