The Irish
Nicole Feder and Chiene Joy Jones
Introduction
As noted in the directions of this project,
the purpose of this assignment was to investigate the use of languages
other than English (LOTE) in immigrant communities. Ready to dive into
this project and meet some people of another culture, we began our
adventure in Woodside, Queens, one of the largest Irish communities in New
York. The last census in 1995 put the population of the neighborhood at
48,865, with 22,119 native born, and 26,746 foreign born, including the
other local ethnic immigrants. We discovered, however, that the official
language of Ireland is English, making this assignment somewhat difficult
to tackle. Although Gaelic is commonly associated with the Irish, very
few actually speak it. It is spoken by a small minority of the Irish
population, and is, in essence, a dying language. Since the majority of
the Irish immigrants in Woodside spoke English, we shifted our focus from
LOTEs to the inherent variables within Irish culture itself and the
surrounding issues.
Accent Differences
According to Carolynn, a bartender we
interviewed, Ireland is divided into two main factions: Northern Ireland
and Ireland. Northern Ireland is made up of six counties under England's
governmental jurisdiction, while Ireland is divided into twenty-six
different counties known as the Republic. Despite the fact that each
county recognizes English as their official native language, accents as in
the United States, tend to vary from place to place. A Southerner, for
instance, can be distinguished from other Americans due to their "Southern
drawl". A New Yorker can be discerned just as a person from Boston is
discerned by their pronunciation of certain words or phrases (i.e.
"coffee," "water," and "park the car"). Carolynn agreed that linguistic
distinctions are similar with the Irish, though non-Irish natives would
have significantly tougher time discriminating among Northerners,
Westerners, and Southerners.
Gaelic Education
Carolynn also informed us about the usage of
Gaelic in Ireland. Gaelic is taught throughout primary and secondary
schools throughout the homeland, but is rarely ever used. Only small
minorities in parts of Southern and Western Ireland speak it. In
Woodside, however, Gaelic has been completely forgotten. After asking
several people, we were unable to find even one person who knew Gaelic.
They informed us that it is not taught in public or private schools here
in the States.
Education
In Woodside, Irish children are being
assimilated into American schools. Whether they are enrolled in a private
Catholic school or the local public school, the Irish children learn what
every other student is learning in Woodside, NY. They are guaranteed
equal access to public education but they are not taught Gaelic.
Education in New York City is mandatory for children ages six to
seventeen. And despite many changes to U.S. immigration laws, public
education is available to all children regardless of their immigration
status. As a result, the large Irish community, along with the many
neighboring ethnic communities, attends Woodside public schools.
Accommodations of other Nationalities
Woodside, being primarily an Irish-American
community, accommodates several other cultures. With Jackson Heights (a
large Latin and Asian community) right next door, a huge outside influence
is placed on Woodside to accommodate the large LOTE speakers. Many of the
businesses assist LOTE by selling newspapers, having translators, and
publishing information in those languages. Local newsstands and
convenience stores carry the "Irish Voice", "Irish Echo", "Irish
Independent", and "The Irish Emigrant", as well as the "Korea Times" (in
Korean), "Hoy and El Diario" (in Spanish), "Al Hayat" (in Arabic, Muslim
newspaper), and "The World Journal" (Chinese newspaper). The Latino and
Asian communities in essence co-exist with the Irish immigrants. As we
walked down the street we noticed a Korean market that sold only Korean
products and all the signs were in Korean. An Indian owned local deli
sold many different Irish products to accommodate the huge Irish
population. The Emerald Isle Immigration Center, one of the main help
resources for Irish immigrants, publishes information in both English and
Spanish because of the large Latino population nearby.
Local Stores and Restaurants
The Irish presence in Woodside is
immediately obvious with the estimated 40 Irish bars and the many Irish
eateries. As Chiene and I were walking we noticed a little bakery and
decided to go in. This Irish owned bakery has been in business for about
five years and sells many of the ethnic Irish baked goods. It had Irish
products like Ambrosia, Devon Custard, Irish soda bread, and many
delicious looking cakes. When speaking to the manager of the Irish
bakery, she had told us that after work her and her co-workers liked to go
drinking at "Copper Face Jacks", a local pub. We found it quite
interesting and amusing to hear these words come out of an Irish person's
mouth. Her statement concurred our notions of the stereotypical Irishman
liking to drink a lot. The Pubs seemed to be a huge aspect of the Irish
community life. In "The Irish Emigrant" magazine the editors dedicated a
whole directory to Irish Pubs throughout New York, New Jersey, and
Connecticut.
Religion
Some of the oldest landmarks in Woodside are
churches. St. Paul's Episcopal was built in 1873, St. Sebastian's Roman
Catholic congregation was formed in 1894, The Blessed Virgin Mary Help of
Christians, popularly known as St. Mary's, was established in 1854, and
St. Jacobus was founded in 1867. The people of Ireland practice the
Celtic Catholic religion, while the people of Northern Ireland are
practicing Protestants. Jews of Ireland, on the other hand, are a Fading
Community on the Emerald Isle. When the Irish brought religion over to
the States, Catholic was obviously dominantly apparent. In Woodside, St.
Agnes another local community Catholic Church, had a private school
attached to it. There, the students wear green plaid uniforms, and adhere
to local Irish traditions.
Governmental Services
To reiterate on what was said before about
the Irish culture, only a small group in Ireland actually speak Gaelic, an
Irish language other than English. But because English is the standard
language for Ireland, there are no governmental or medical services
available in Gaelic. Nevertheless, there are governmental services
available to the other immigrants in the Woodside community. Public school
registration applications are available in several languages, (i.e.
Spanish, Chinese and Korean). Public schools accommodate languages other
than English by including multilingual lunch forms, information bulletins,
and by having an advisor that speaks their native language. It's the same
thing when it comes time to vote in the primaries. Signs that say "Vote
Here" are posted in all three of the local languages. While looking in a
newsletter at the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, we stumbled upon an ad
promoting a white, female running for City Councilwoman. To accommodate
the Irish community, the letters in the ad were green, and four leaf
clovers were scattered around her picture. This is significant because
even though you can't actually communicate to the Irish people in another
language (with Gaelic being so rare), you can approach them in another
way. In this case, the woman running for city councilwoman used Irish
symbols and a color primarily related to Irish traditions.
Medical Services
Similar to governmental services, there are
no medical services specifically catering to the Gaelic speaking Irish
community members. However, hospitals do assist the other LOTEs by
offering interpreters for the Spanish speaking, the Korean speaking, and
the Chinese-speaking immigrants. We called the Woodside Medical Care
Center after hours to hear what language the voicemail service was going
to be in. To our surprise, it was in both English and Spanish, two of the
most commonly used languages in the community and in the United States.
The Woodside hospitals don't have the need to assist such a small minority
of Gaelic speaking Irish immigrants assimilate into our American culture.
It's much easier for the English-speaking immigrants to blend and learn
how to fit in with the American experience.
Things We Could Not Find In Woodside
Surprisingly enough, there were many things
that we did not see in the Woodside Irish community. For instance, lessons
on learning how to play the bagpipes weren't advertised anywhere. There
weren't any flyers or announcements regarding the primary elections for
this November. We assumed that with the type of influence the Irish had on
politics historically with Tammany Hall, politicians might have used
similar strategy in this widely recognized Irish community. We couldn't
find any uses of Gaelic within this small community and there were no
Irish specific private schools or cultural organizations anywhere.
Conclusion
Coming off the train in Woodside, we had all
kinds of fixed notions of what a typical Irish person would look like and
how they would act. While sitting in the subway car Chiene turned to
Nicole and said, "I bet he's Irish, lets ask him if he is going to
Woodside." We played into those stereotypes of pale skin, reddish hair,
light eyes, and drinking all the time. Feeling ridiculous for making
such speculations, we decided not to ask and eventually reached our
destination. While in Woodside we met several people fitting into various
categories of the stereotypes. It wasn't until we walked into an Indian
owned Deli that I realized how easy it would be to categorize people.
When we asked the owner why he had so many Irish products in his store, he
replied, "You should know better than I, you're Irish," referring to
Nicole because of Nicole's physical features (blonde hair, blue eyes, pale
skin), he assumed that she was part of the community too. We laughed,
looked at each other, and then told the man that Nicole was actually
Jewish-Caucasian-American. Since the majority of the community is English
speaking, he was able to easily play into the stereotypes too. However,
after observing the community and asking the right questions, Chiene and I
were able to come away understanding how an immigrant community must feel
in such a huge dominant American culture.
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