Working to Assimilate: Irish Immigrants and Employment
with Jane Kennedy

History Revealed Series
Thursday, April 21, 2022
7:00 pm

In partnership with the East Side Freedom Library and the Roseville Library

Live presentation on Zoom
Register in advance for this meeting: Zoom Registration Link
Registration is limited. You will receive a confirmation email after registering.
For questions, please email events@rchs.com

We’ve heard the expression “Irish Need Not Apply,” but what was it like in the mid- and late-19^th century when Irish immigrants came to Minnesota/Ramsey County to seek employment? Were the Irish able to transfer the skills from their homeland to work opportunities here? This program captures Irish immigrant employment – its challenges and opportunities – at a time when the Irish were trying to gain a foothold in a new land.

Jane Kennedy lives in St. Paul, MN. Her interest in exploring Irish immigration is linked to her family’s emigration in the 1880s from County Mayo, Ireland. She has a B.A. in English and Journalism from St. Catherine University and an M.A. in Business Communications from the University of St. Thomas. Kennedy obtained Irish citizenship in 2016 (dual citizenship) following two visits to her grandfather’s homeland in the Belmullet Peninsula, Co. Mayo.

The Ramsey County Historical Society, in partnership with the East Side Freedom Library, the Ramsey County Roseville Library and other community organizations, will present a series of programs and events during 2022 that will center on the experiences of indigenous people, African Americans, and immigrants in Ramsey County from the 1800s through the current day, Making Minnesota: Natives, Settlers, Migrants, and Immigrants. These programs focus on the too often lost, erased, forgotten or misrepresented histories and stories of Ramsey County and the state of Minnesota. We expect these presentations to enrich and complicate our understanding of the development of the county and the state that we call home.

Image: Irish woman spinning. Courtesy of Jane Kennedy and the Minnesota Historical Society.