History Revealed: Irish Immigrants

Working to Assimilate: Irish Immigrants and Employment
with Jane Kennedy

History Revealed Series
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Program Video on YouTube

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

We’ve heard the expression “Irish Need Not Apply,” but what was it like in the mid- and late-19th 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’s 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.

Making Minnesota: Natives, Settlers, Migrants, and Immigrants
The Ramsey County Historical Society, in partnership with the East Side Freedom Library, the Ramsey County Roseville Library and other community organizations,  presented a series of programs and events that will center on the experiences of indigenous people, African Americans, and immigrants in Ramsey County from the 1800s through the current day. programs which 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.

Past History Revealed Programs
More videos of some of our past History Revealed programs are available on the RCHS YouTube channel.
Ramsey County Historical Society Youtube Channel

To purchase titles from the History Revealed series, or other books of interest, see our partner, Subtext Books at https://subtextbooks.com/