Question

How does this article give you a better understanding of the changing perception of Irish immigrants in America?What forces allowed the Irish to be assimilated into U.S. culture despite initial resistance?

Much of the anti-Catholic bias that confronted Irish-American immigrants focused on the figure of the Pope. To many nativist Americans, the idea that Catholic immigrants professed allegiance to a foreign-born religious leader raised serious doubts about whether they could ever be "truly" American. The advent of the War Between the States created an opportunity for the Irish immigrant community to "prove" its Americanism—to demonstrate loyalty to its adopted country, and by so doing, put the lie to the assertions of Know-Nothings and other nativists, who saw the Irish as unfit to be called American.

Answer 1

The article first begins by explaining how and why the Irish-Americans were initially viewed by some Americans as being unfit to be called Americans because the Irish as Catholics, followed the Pope who was not American.

It then continues on to show how the Irish were given an opportunity to change this perception that some Americans had during the War between the States otherwise known as the American Civil War where they could show that they were loyal to the United States and therefore as American as the rest.

The American Civil War while deadly, gave the Irish a change to shine because they joined the war effort in their tens of thousands in both the Union and the Confederacy with the Union getting most of them. This forced Americans to see that the Irish-Americans were Americans and afterwards the process of assimilation began.