The Experience of Irish Catholic Immigrants in Scotland

Question 1

During the industrial revolution what industries did Irish Catholics living in Scotland work in?

Answer 1

Construction, coal and steel.

Question 2

What did Irish Catholics unskilled workers who came to Scotland on a temporary basis do for work? And what time of year did they work?

Answer 2

Worked as field hands and labourers during harvest time.

Question 3

Where did Irish Catholics settle in Scotland?

Answer 3

Nears ports - Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Greenock.

Question 4

Where were some of the small communities the Irish Catholics lived in, in order to support each other?

Answer 4

Glasgow’s Gorbals, Airdrie, Coatbridge and Motherwell, Edinburgh - Grassmarket and Cowgate (known as ‘little Dublin’)

Question 5

Comment on the living conditions of Irish catholics in Scotland.

Answer 5

Settled where accommodation was cheap. Poor and overcrowded conditions. It was not unusual for 16 people to share one room in Edinburgh. They had no sewage and no running water and disease spread easily.

Question 6

What made Irish Catholic workers desirable to employers?

Answer 6

They would work long hours for less pay.

Question 7

What jobs did Irish Catholics do in Scotland and what nickname were they given because of this?

Answer 7

Unskilled jobs on the canals, in transportation, as dockside labour and in house and railway construction.

Navvy

Question 8

What jobs did Irish Catholics tend to do in Edinburgh?

Answer 8

Domestic service, portering and general service. Some were involved in small scale retail, selling food, second hand clothes and spirits. These jobs tended to be hard work and low pay.

Question 9

Give an example of where Irish Catholics tended to integrate better in areas where Scots were Catholic.

Answer 9

The West Highland Line - a railway line which ran from Fort William to the port of Mallaig, was completed in 1901 with a labour forced that included many Catholic navvies. With Mallaig being a mainly Catholic community the navvies integrated well with the locals.

Question 10

Why were Catholic Irish used as strike breakers between 1820 and 1850?

Answer 10

because many refused to participate in their local union for social, economic & cultural reasons. Most of the evidence of strike-breaking comes from the coal & ironworks of Lanarkshire & Ayrshire. This caused a lot of hostility & tension with local Scot workers, who were attempting to get better pay & conditions

Question 11

What issues did Catholic Irish working through strikes between 1820 and 1850 cause

Answer 11

The hostility and tension with local Scots workers, who were attempting to get better pay & conditions caused anti catholic riots to take place in Airdrie 1835 & Greenock in 1855 in reaction to the strike-breaking activity of Irish Catholic workers.

Question 12

In which decade were both Catholic and Protestant Irish participating in strike movements

Answer 12

1870s

Question 13

By 1900, Catholic and Protestant Irish accounted for nearly three quarters of which Union .

Answer 13

Lanarkshire Miners’ Union

Question 14

By 1910 Catholic and Protestant Irish made up the majority of the Lanarkshire branch of which union.

Answer 14

National Iron & Steelworkers Union

Question 15

Which three Unions did Catholic and Protestant Irish help organise in Glasgow

Answer 15

National Labourers Union,
National Union of Dock Labourers,
Glasgow Friendly Association of Cotton Spinners

Question 16

which was the most powerful & active union organisation in the west of Scotland in the 1830’s

Answer 16

Glasgow Friendly Association of Cotton Spinners

Question 17

How did Catholic priests play an important role in helping arriving Catholic immigrants to settle into the local community

Answer 17

They encouraged newcomers to write letters home &
find accommodation. The church became the centre of Catholic life & was a place of comfort for those who had moved away from their families. Glasgow’s Irish population in 1841 numbered roughly 40,000, with just over a third attending church regularly. Most Irish Catholics would have a priest perform sacraments such as baptisms, communions, weddings and funeral rites.

Question 18

What helped to maintain a sense of introspective social community, fun & culture in Irish people’s lives.

Answer 18

The church held social gatherings such as dances & fetes, and celebrated Irish cultural events like St Patrick’s Day. Halls would be opened opposite Catholic churches so that young men & women could find acceptable recreation with those of their own religion.

Question 19

How did the Catholic Church also offered practical help to Catholic communities

Answer 19

Priests helped newcomers write letters home. Bishop Murdoch organised a soup kitchen in 1847, that fed more than 400 men, women & children every day. Those with jobs would give money to the Catholic Church to help it to continue to support the poor.

Question 20

Give examples of Charities that helped Irish Catholic immigrants find housing and community

Answer 20

The Saint Patrick Catholic Friendly Society in Airdrie 1836. Established by local Catholic schoolmaster James McAuley to assist new immigrants. The society saw an increase in numbers during the era of the Great Famine. 48 members in 1846 to 91 in 1847. The church also opened a Catholic Orphan Institution in 1833, which took in children whose parents had died as a result of the typhus epidemic. It also established the Scottish division of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in 1845, which offered support to the poor.

Question 21

How did Catholic schools become incorporated into the Scottish education system

Answer 21

Some Irish immigrants set up Catholic schools. In Dundee in 1860 there were only two Catholic schools, however by 1870 the number had doubled. These operated out of Catholic churches at first, but the Education Acts of 1918 led to the incorporation of Catholic schools into the Scottish education system. St Thomas of Aquin’s in Edinburgh was taken over by the state.

Question 22

Was it easy for Catholic immigrants to find better paid jobs

Answer 22

No
Many Catholics faced discrimination when it came to jobs. Many industries would not hire them. Many job advertisements in newspapers regularly stated ‘Catholics need not apply.’ This meant that they found it hard to get better paid jobs. In 1880, of an overall population of 250,000 in Glasgow, just six Catholic students attended Glasgow University.

Question 23

Were some Catholics racially targeted in Scotland

Answer 23

Yes
This was partly due to the fact that the pope had reinstated the Catholic Church in England in 1850. Some Scottish Protestants were worried that Catholicism would spread further throughout Scotland. Anti-Catholic political leaders such as, John Sayers Orr, openly opposed the Catholic Church. There were riots in the western lowlands, and anti-catholic journals like, ‘The Bulwark and the Scottish Protestant.’ This created a hostile environment for many Irish Catholics who were accused of spreading Catholicism and undermining the Church of Scotland.

Question 24

Which leaders promoted the racist idea that Irish Catholic people were not equal to Scots

Answer 24

George Combe, Thomas Carlyle & Robert Knox were among the leaders of the anti-Catholic movement that promoted the racist idea

Question 25

On a scale of 1 to 100 how awesome is my dad

Answer 25

a gazzillion :)