More than just a day for green beer, St. Patrick’s Day gives us the chance to celebrate nearly 200 years of Irish culture in Worcester – a city built at the hands of these settlers.

Coming to Worcester

Around 1815, a group of “invisible immigrants” – a small, middle class of Irish farmers, shopkeepers, artisans and mechanics – emigrated to assist in the construction of the Blackstone Canal.

The Irish were attracted to the Worcester area by Irish entrepreneurs like Tobias Boland and Benjamin Wright. Boland, a construction boss, brought Irish settlers to the area to aid in the completion of the canal. Wright attracted Irish settlers from New York who had previously worked on construction projects and were better equipped than the “Yankees” first employed to complete the job.

After 1845, two more waves of Irish immigration into the city occurred. Many of these settlers were those fleeing from Ireland’s Great Famine, and their sheer numbers began to drain the city of its resources. Feelings of resentment grew in the Irish community, and the influx of immigrants created a divide between what would come to be known as the “Old” Irish and the “New” Irish.

The economic climate of Worcester stabilized as the Great Famine ended, and the rate of immigration slowed by the end of the 1850s. This group of Irish Catholics had become the single largest ethnic group in Worcester by 1895 and accounted for nearly one-third of the population.

‘Old’ vs. ‘New’ Irish

In his work, Worcester’s Immigrant Groups: A Bicentennial View, the late author and Worcester historian Morris H. Cohen noted that the immigrants first settled in the valley areas of Worcester, near the Island area on the east side of town, close to the railroad tracks and factories.

As these groups became more affluent, they would to move “up the hills,” and their former residences became occupied by the next group of immigrants. Irish shantytowns began to appear in The Meadows (east of what is now Washington Square), “Scalpintown” (near what is now Water Street), and on the North Slope of Union Hill.

The two distinct waves of settlement led to a dispersal of Worcester’s Irish community, as the downtown settlers began moving up the hills. The Great Famine was responsible for the arrival of thousands of immigrants into the city limits, all of whom were ready to fill the demands for unskilled labor.

The community began to expand as longstanding residents moved toward the east side of the city and new settlers claimed their vacant homes. What had formerly been a tight-knit community began to dissipate, and tensions between the two groups grew.

Strain between the “Old” and “New” Irish climaxed on Palm Sunday in 1847, when violence erupted between the established Irish community, comprised mainly of canal-builders, and the new arrivals from Ireland. The resentment felt by the newcomers stemmed from feelings of alienation from the established Irish community.

Riots erupted throughout the city. Ideas of violence spread rapidly as groups began rioting outside of taverns before turning their efforts to tracking down specific individuals. One group in particular searched out Tobias Boland but was unable to find him. The group then turned its actions toward the local priest. This English priest, Matthew Gibson, was roughed up by crowd, which believed that he was unfamiliar with the religious folk practices of western Ireland. After forcing him to flee to Boston, the crowd slowly dissipated.

The Irish Influence

It would be fair to claim that the city of Worcester was literally built by the Irish. They constructed the factories that dominated the town, the streets and sidewalks that enlarged it, the canal that connected it to Providence and the railroads that revolutionized transportation. Unfavorable Irish stereotypes simply did not apply; the Irish provided the labor and expertise that was needed as the city began to industrialize.

Often, Irish “strollers” swept through the town and provided the labor to complete temporary jobs before continuing to somewhere new. Other, more permanent Irish settlers found regular jobs in the many warehouses and factories that sprung up around the canal or on the canal itself as boatmen.

The addition of the Irish to the workforce helped industrialize the city, as the construction of canals and railroads connected Worcester to other large cities and essentially transformed the once-isolated town into a large industrial center.

The steady flow of Catholics into Worcester began to cause a variety of problems for the church, since the few priests in New England were taxed in their efforts to provide the rapidly growing community with adequate care. The desire for a permanent pastor to be assigned to the town grew, and in the early 1830s, was met with the presence of Reverend James Fitton. Fitton was instrumental in the religious evolution of Worcester. He bought land on Temple Street for the first Catholic Church in town and established a Catholic boarding school, which later became The College of the Holy Cross.

In his work, To Preserve the Flame: St. John’s Parish and 150 Years of Catholicism in Worcester, historian Timothy J. Meagher explained that prior to the establishment of such enterprises, there were no churches or religious meetinghouses whatsoever within the city, and that in this feat, the Irish had proved they were capable of creating something remarkable.

The Irish had also originally constructed St. Vincent’s Hospital, as well as contributed to the formation of various political, social and charitable organizations within the city of Worcester.

If hospitals, churches and canals aren’t enough, we also have the Irish to thank for the potato. According to The Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society: The Scotch-Irish in America (1895), “They [Irish settlers] introduced the potato, so generally known in this vicinity as the Irish potato, into Worcester, as well as the other parts of the country in which they settled.” It is believed that this crop was first introduced to New England as the first group of Irish settled, as nothing seems to have been known about it prior to their arrival in America in 1718.

Facing Discrimination

Although the early Irish were generally received as sources of labor, they were excluded socially by a majority of Worcester’s native inhabitants. Signs reading, “Rooms for rent, no Irish need apply” were all-too-common as the Irish flooded the city.

The sheer numbers of Irish in the city lent to their being viewed as a threat within the community; newspapers began to play on the concerns of locals, one even going to far as to claim that it was Worcester’s fate to become another Dublin.

The late Dr. Vincent E. Powers, author of The Irish in Worcester, noted that in the 1850s, a branch of the Know-Nothing Party began to organize in Worcester and soon secured control over the community. The party began to pass laws against the Irish, delaying the naturalization process of immigrants and forbidding nonnative-born individuals to hold elective or appointive office. The party also passed employment laws, forbidding any person to work unless they had attended an American public school for a certain number of years.

Growing solidarity within the Irish community eventually led to the emergence of Irish into city politics. The political involvement of this ethnic group culminated as Phillip O’Connell, an Irish lawyer, was elected mayor of Worcester in 1900. During these later years, the presence of the Irish in local government corresponded with the appearance of members of the community as civil service agents like policemen.

Celebrating Irish Culture

The Ancient Order of the Hibernians, an organization that plans community events and sponsors various Irish festivals throughout the year, aims to both preserve and promote Irish culture. The Worcester branch, Division 36, was established around 1866.

The late John F. Finnegan, former member and president of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, Division 36, said, “In this country, the mission of the Hibernians has been to help Irish immigrants settle.” However, this function of the society has faded since the early 1960s, as immigration from Ireland to the area has slowed nearly to a halt. The group has since evolved its mission, which Finnegan described as “remaining focused upon keeping ethnic heritage alive.”

Worcester has a lengthy and notable history of Irish traditions, one of the most interesting being that of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The first parade was held in March 1868 as a response to the strong Irish nationalism of the decade. In his work Inventing Irish America, author and historian Timothy J. Meagher said, “The Irish used annual festivities to demonstrate the strength and loyalty of the community in Worcester.”

However, these parades became the center of heated controversy at the time. The Irish community frequently disagreed over how the parades should best represent its identity as a group. Due to these arguments, Worcester’s Irishmen agreed to march on St. Patrick’s Day only 10 times from 1880-1896. The tradition was abandoned entirely in 1911, a move which lasted until 1983, when the event was revived.

The 1983 St. Patrick’s Day Parade was documented by an array of local newspapers; a 1983 publication of the Worcester Telegram illustrated the event, with the caption: “Cold or no cold, there was a parade to be watched and the Irish were getting together. The parade, with 2,500 participants, got under way with five three-wheeled police motorcycles, lights flashing and sirens wailing, and three cruisers leading the way”.

The popularity of the parade was reported by The Evening Gazette (1983), which said, “A crowd estimated of more than 100,000 people turned out yesterday for the city’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade in 72 years.” The longstanding popularity of the parade has led to the continuation of the event as this beloved festivity enters its 34th annual celebration in 2016.

More than eight generations have passed since the 1820 arrival of the “Canal” Irish in Worcester, what Powers referred to as “The first ethnic community within the city.” The traditions of the Irish are kept alive through the efforts of local and regional organizations, which continue to hold events in an effort to maintain the ties of Worcester’s Irish to their native roots.

Some organizations, like the Gaelic Athletic Association, aspire to bring traditional Irish sports, like hurling and Gaelic football, to the masses. They allow for a wide range of participation, as the leagues range from youth to adult.

Other events, like the Celtic Festival and Irish Music Festival, are sponsored by local Irish organizations like the Ancient Order of the Hibernians and the Irish Cultural Center of New England. These groups aim to bring Irish traditions into the 21st century and allow for new generations of Irish Americans to embrace their heritage.

In Inventing Irish America, Meagher addressed the current Worcester Irish: “They have changed because older generations had grown up, grown old, and passed away, and new generations have emerged with new understandings of themselves as Irish and American and Catholic.”

Much of the research for this article was found at the American Antiquarian Society (americanantiquarian.org) and the Worcester Historical Museum (worcesterhistory.org). Photos were provided by the Worcester Historical Museum.

By Christina Rossetti