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- No Irish Need Apply
- From
- Jim O'Connor
1949: Pete Seeger sings and picks a cheery-sounding tune about…workplace discrimination!
When a potato famine crippled Ireland in the 1840’s, Irish citizens flooded US port towns, especially Boston. By 1855, about half of Beantown’s hundred and fifty thousand residents were foreign-born, the vast majority of them Irish. The huge influx of poor and malnourished led inevitably to prejudice, and NINA, or No Irish Need Apply signs, came to be. Posted on shop windows, restaurants and the like, the signs forbade Irish from applying for advertised job openings.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
1949: Pete Seeger sings and picks a cheery-sounding tune about…workplace discrimination!
When a potato famine crippled Ireland in the 1840’s, Irish citizens flooded US port towns, especially Boston. By 1855, about half of Beantown’s hundred and fifty thousand residents were foreign-born, the vast majority of them Irish. The huge influx of poor and malnourished led inevitably to prejudice, and NINA, or No Irish Need Apply signs, came to be. Posted on shop windows, restaurants and the like, the signs forbade Irish from applying for advertised job openings.
Transcript
1949: Pete Seeger sings and picks a cheery-sounding tune about…workplace discrimination!
When a potato famine crippled Ireland in the 1840’s, Irish emigrants flooded US port towns, especially Boston. By 1855, about half of Beantown’s hundred and fifty thousand residents were foreign-born, the vast majority of them Irish. The huge influx of poor and malnourished led inevitably to prejudice, and NINA, or No Irish Need Apply signs, came to be. Posted on shop windows, restaurants and the like, the signs forbade Irish from applying for advertised job openings.
Read the full transcript
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Irish Need Apply | Pete Seeger | Charter RC-1 | 1949 | 01:20 |
Additional Credits
Brett Barry, host
Staff of Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library
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