Relations Between Early Italian and Irish Immigrants

by Collin Carroll

America is a country of Immigrants. For centuries, families and individuals have been
immigrating to the United States in search of new opportunities and a path to a better life. Some
of the largest groups to make this trip were Italian and Irish immigrants. While their cultural
traditions, languages, and religious practices differed in many ways, these two communities
shared a common experience: the effort to try to find their way in a new and changing world.
Much of the history of these two groups has been extremely intertwined. They both worked in
blue-collar jobs and had many religious similarities and differences. Yet they understood each
other’s cultures over time through shared hardship, mutual support, and a growing American
identity.
Both Italian and Irish immigrants faced harsh realities upon arrival. The Irish, fleeing
famine and poverty, were among the first to be met with fierce discrimination. The Irish differed
in some views regarding religion. They were viewed as inferior or racially discriminated for
being Catholic. Italians, who arrived a little later, encountered similar prejudice. Often
stereotyped as criminals or anarchists, they, too, were viewed with careful attention to detail, due
to their unusual traditions and unique culture. Despite these challenges, both groups developed
tight-knit communities centered around the church, neighborhood associations, and family ties.
What makes the Italian and Irish immigrant experiences so interesting is not only the
adversity they faced, but the way they adapted and evolved, sometimes as two communities
coming together as friends and sometimes as rivals. In certain cities, especially in the Northeast
and Midwest, Italian and Irish neighborhoods were adjacent, even overlapping. Some families
were able to form relations across the ethnic lines, while others stayed separated due to reasons
of religion, culture, community, tradition, etc. Religion, particularly Catholicism, played a
significant role in both dividing and uniting the two groups. The Churches in the community
became a focal part of the community and caused much communion and separation.
In this paper, I tried to understand these relations better through the personal stories of
my grandfather. My grandfather, who is a third-generation Irish American, grew up in an Italian
neighborhood with few other Irish families. His stories offered me a unique view of the
friendships, the rivalries, the shared meals, the church festivals, and how these relationships
changed from one generation to the next. By focusing on his stories of the community, culture,
religion, and family, I hope to capture the true relation of immigrant life in a way that textbooks
can’t seem to capture.
I asked my grandfather questions based on religion, community, tradition, and relations.
The first question that I asked was about how the two communities interacted with each other
over his time growing up. Being a predominantly Italian community, my family were the

outcasts for the most part. It later came out that their neighborhood would complain that an Irish
family was moving next to them. He would talk about how he feels that the neighborhood is
starting to go downhill and that it will keep trending in that direction. My grandpa then told me
about other cases that he knew of in the surrounding area where people were being shunned
simply for being Irish. For example, there was a mayor in the neighboring town that was almost
ran out of town for being an Irishman, but these experiences were happening to several
nationalities around the area, and everyone had gone through it all at some point. Even though
there were said about my family by their neighbors who were Italian, my grandpa emphasized
that those same neighbors became their best friends. My grandpa would spend every day hanging
out with the kid, and the parents became great family friends. So much so that both sets of
parents are now buried next to each other. There were many jokes that started based on both the
Irish and Italian kids in the neighborhood, but neither group seemed to care about them. My
grandpa told me that it was the Italian kids who would start the jokes about themselves. The
tensions never seemed to be high, even with the stereotypes circulating. There was always an
immense amount of respect for both communities. My grandpa had nothing but amazing things
to say about the kids that he grew up with, and that they were truly hard-nosed kids. The only
times that he would see and/or notice the ethnic differences are when he would go over to the
family’s house. He told me about how they would always have the massive traditional Italian
dinners, and the grandparents would always be over, but growing up, that was always one of his
favorite parts. He loved the big meals and all the family values that he got to see. This aligns
with many of the stereotypes I have learned from taking Italian 222, but I was shocked to hear it
in such a positive light. Many of the films that we watched, and the different lessons, painted
these stereotypes as a way of hatred and prejudice. While yes, I acknowledge that both of those
points are very true, it was comforting and interesting to hear that those same stereotypes were
not always painted so poorly.
My grandpa then started to talk about some of the mafia ties that were in his community.
He said that it was an extremely prevalent thing in his neighborhood but it was never violent or
caused much harm to the community. He told me stories about the man who owned the candy
shop and how every time he would walk in there, he would see the owner sitting in the phone
booth inside the shop. The kids never understood what exactly was happening when they were
younger, because all they ever cared about was their candy. As he grew up, he started to learn
more and more about what exactly was going down. The owner was running a betting operation
for the mafia in the area, he would always be in the booth taking phone calls for different bets.
Several other businesses had ties to the mob. The barber would stop mid haircut to go take phone
calls and write down the bets, he was a bookie for the mafia. The garbage truck company was
another front. Although there was a very large presence of the mafia in the community, my
grandpa could only come up with two stories of people getting arrested, and it was never for bad.
In both cases, the men were caught running gambling operations and had different problems with
money. If any members in the neighborhood were violent, they were far and few between and
never bothered the neighborhood that much. I thought it was extremely interesting to hear about
these stories being real. I will see mafia stories in movies, where a certain image is painted about
them, and that there is always violence to follow. While what the mafia in this case was doing
was still illegal, my grandpa said that it never caused any harm to the neighborhood or the people
in it.

The next question that I asked was about the experiences that my great-grandparents had
with the two cultures being together. Their experiences were very similar to the next generation.
I feel that these two generations are when much of the discrimination, at least between the two
groups, started to vanish a little. It may have been a problem elsewhere, but where my family
was, it seemed to be disappearing. My great-grandparents never talked poorly about Italians, at
least in a serious context, and became very close with their neighbors who were Italian. My
grandpa’s uncle, who I was told tended to be a pretty racist man, even ended up marrying an
Italian girl. My extended family worked a lot in New York and would spend a lot of time in both
the Irish and Italian ghettos that were there. Both communities mingled a lot, and there may have
been problems here and there, but never anything with the whole community. I was told that
maybe if I went another generation back that there may have been some more prejudice, simply
due to the fact of the competition for jobs and opportunities, but the two generations that I got to
learn about seemed to be accepting and they got along splendidly.
Next, I asked about different community gatherings and or traditions he may have
experienced being in an Italian community, and how the relationship with the church was
between the two groups. I was told that there were never any unique traditions that were held in
Roselle Park. The typical feast days for different Italian Saints were celebrated and things of that
nature, but there weren’t many, if any, unique traditions. Many of the neighboring communities
would hold different celebrations and/or parties where there would be traditional food eaten and
some other traditions, but it was not anything like it is portrayed in pop culture. Now, with the
church, the Italians in the community were extremely devout Catholics, along with the Irish.
They never fought about different views in the church or ways to worship. Many Italian
holidays, feast days, etc., were celebrated, but others were not pushed down or shunned. Some of
the time, there would be a mass that was held in Italian, and my grandpa would often hear
confessions being given in Italian. He told me this story of a woman who would go to all three
mass services on Sunday. These stories were just to show how committed the Italians in the
community were to their faith. Not to try and illustrate discrimination against the Irish for not
being as committed. Once again, certain stereotypes are being played into, but not in a bad way.
There was never any discrimination because certain people would live up to the stereotypes. My
grandpa told me how he was always able to tell who the Italians were in the town, but not
because of their skin or accent or anything like that. It was due to the dress and how they carried
themselves; this was all said with laughter following because it was interesting to see the
stereotypes come true.
Looking back through the lens of my grandpa’s stories, the relationship between early
Italian and Irish immigrants becomes much clearer. This story is not simply about the hate or
love between the two communities, but about the way that they overcame the same adversity
while adapting to each other. These communities were shaped by shared hardships and distinct
traditions, often trying to balance cooperation and competition. My grandfather’s memories
reflect this: the moments of shared meals, going to mass together, working side by side, while
also going through the stereotypes and the jokes. Through it all, what emerged most clearly to
me is a story of resilience and community. Trying to find an identity in changing times but also
growing to accept a new culture and identity.

The values of community, culture, religion, and family were vital parts of the community
and truly helped them to thrive together. Churches were more than places of worship; they were
centers of social life, education, and family. Families leaned on one another across generations,
preserving customs while learning to accept other traditions, and there may have been rough
moments, but it flourished. And in the spaces where Irish and Italian lives crossed paths, they
shaped each other, attending each other’s events, sharing jokes, even marrying one another.
Though decades have passed, these stories still resonate. They remind us that the
American identity is not just one group of people but several stories and walks of life coming
together in pursuit of something more. Through my grandfather’s recollections, we can see how
cultural boundaries that once seemed so rigid and stiff can become a little blurry and accepting. I
hope that these same values that were shared and grew between these two cultures can continue
to give lessons to generations in the future, even if it is regarding cultures that are separate from
these two.