Young teen Irish girls as servants, 1850s

[smcarberry]

This New York City ad is confirmation of how standard the practice was for young teenagers of humble Irish birth to be already in the workforce, whether it was boys in farm work/city stables or girls in the households of the affluent. The age in the ad was 13.

The twist with this ad was the emphasis on religion, but that also is not surprising in view of this period in the U.S. when signs and ads stated baldly "No Irish need apply." In just the prior decade the Know Nothings had pursued a vehement campaign against the influx of Irish Catholics, to the extent of burning churches, even in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.

Note the final line in this ad, which seemingly relates to the young girl's leaving the house and freeing up a room.

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[mgallery]

I know we hear about the Irish Catholics being discriminated against but certainly in Baltimore where my cousin Cornelius D Kenny lived they were not necessarily seen as downtrodden.
Cornelius D Kenny had a chain of coffee shops throughout the southern states (C.D Kenny ) and was a wholesale coffee importer. He died very rich. He was a devout Catholic and had his own pew in Baltimore Cathedral where he is buried. In 1895 he sued the United American newspaper for libel as they said “The Papist Tea Merchant Cornelius. D. Kenny” (The Evening Star, 1895) will not employ Protestants. In court he says of 29 clerks employed 21 are protestant and their religion matters no more to him than the colour of their hair
Cornelius emigrated from Milford (outside Miltown Malbay modern day Ilaune, Carrowkeel in 1848 when he was about 9 to Rochester New York with his father Cornelius Kenny).

(They claimed he had a sign up in the shop saying no protestants need apply)

[smcarberry]

Yes, indeed, then as now, there are areas in the U.S. where policies and practices are far more enlightened. Maryland happens to be the cradle of Catholicism in the U.S. and thus a safe place for Irish immigration.

In the very earliest time before the end of English rule, Catholics had to hold Sunday services in private homes and no written records were kept. However, by the early 1800s, Irish Catholics were rising up the ranks in politics. A branch of the Carberry sept immigrated to Maryland in the 1700s, had the first nun every professed in the U.S., and their descendant Thomas Carberry served a term (circa 1823) as mayor of Washington, D.C., with a fine mansion there (photographed about 1918 before its demolition).

The grand thing is that entrepeneurs often found a way to accumulate wealth, and farmers as well secured a very nice lifestyle. Those employed in factory sweatshops fueled the rise of unions, with many Irish participating in the riots (like those in Chicago) which led to workplace standards that we take for granted now, like fire safety, work breaks, and restrictions against child labor.

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