American Wake

Not many living Irish people or Irish Americans would have experienced an American Wake, but they would have heard about it. It was customary from the late nineteenth century until the 1950s to organise a going away party for each emigrant going to the United States and Canada, known as ‘the American Wake’. After the Napoleonic wars in 1815, a big influx of Irish emigration to the USA began, and by 1840, an estimated 300,000 had arrived in search of work. The numbers going to the USA soared to an estimated 1.7 million between 1840 and 1860, and continued at a high figures until the late 1920s and again in the 1950s, but never reached the previous levels. Despite the sadness involved in emigration, the American Wake consisted of singing, dancing and drinking. In the early hours of the morning, those attending would with deep emotion bid farewell to the departing emigrant and give a small monetary gift. The grief of wailing parents and siblings at such scenes has been immortalised in songs and ballads.

For years, the departing emigrant was taken to the nearest railway station to catch a train for Cobh (formerly Queenstown) in County Cork for a liner to America. The American Wake was in some way an acknowledgement that the departure to America was in most cases a final parting from family, friends and home. There was no party for anyone going to England because of its proximity. The emotions of an ‘American Wake’ were brilliantly described by Liam O’Flaherty in his famous short story, ‘Going into Exile’. The trauma of emigration for families was explored in several Irish plays, with prior agonising in Philadelphia Here I Come (1964) by Brian Friel, the lure of a new life away in The Country Boy (1960) by John Murphy, and its wastefulness for the country in Many Young Men of Twenty (1961) by John B. Keane. There was an expectation for years that an emigrant was to save and send home the cost of the passage for another family member to follow, leading in many cases to chain emigration, and there were several families in many parts of Ireland where all but one emigrated to the United States

The physical hardships endured by those emigrants were compounded by the knowledge that they were most unlikely ever to see their families or their native land again. For decades, they were all impoverished, uneducated, unskilled and ill-equipped to deal with the numerous challenges which lay ahead. The big challenge facing these Irish immigrants to the USA was survival. Moving from a supportive, easy-going, Irish-speaking, primitive agrarian background to an alien multi-ethnic urban society, with a strong free enterprise ethos, was a huge cultural shock. The USA may have been seen as the land of opportunity but securing a start in some employment was often a difficult challenge for those without friends or contacts. Who you knew was very important in obtaining some employment, with most men securing employment in construction work and women in domestic service. For all Irish immigrants, the United States was seen as a beacon of hope and opportunity. They forged a strong Irish consciousness and gradually most of them survived in reasonable circumstances, but there were also many who experienced severe poverty and despair. Very few emigrants in the nineteenth century made the journey home for many reasons, length of the voyage, cost, personal circumstances and their short vacations from work. During the twentieth century, as economic and social conditions improved many emigrants returned on vacation, especially after the Second World War, and towards the end of the century, some came back and settled in the country.

In the twentieth century, the Irish in America took up employment in all areas of American life. All became loyal and proud citizens of the United States, with some serving their adopted country in military service, but most never lost their love for ‘the old sod’. Long before the dawn of the new millennium, descendants of Irish immigrants were to be found in every walk and level of American life.

Bernard O'Hara's latest book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble

It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).

An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).