The St. Louis Irish: An Unmatched Celtic Community
by William Barnaby Faherty

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Book Reviews of The St. Louis Irish: An Unmatched Celtic Community

Book Review: The Way We Were, The Way We Are
Summary: 5 Stars

On a personal level, any member of this Celtic Community, which includes Fr. Faherty and myself, can enjoy reading the extensive list of names of people who have enriched our Community over the centuries. In the early chapters we read names familiar to us from a variety of sources. Some names we know from the other historical books we have read or from the mosaics of the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica which we have admired. Other names remind us of streets or businesses which have been part of our community for as long as we can remember. Some names are those of contemporary friends or acquaintances who may be descendants of these notable citizens. In the later chapters we read of people known to us personally.

This book also teaches us the history of St. Louis, which has been shaped, in large degree, by its large Celtic community. St. Louis' unique history as a Catholic center prepared it to be a fertile ground for Irish settlement. Unlike eastern cities whose original aristocracy was Anglo-American and Protestant, the original St. Louis aristocracy was French-Canadian and Catholic. This originally French city welcomed the Irish and smoothly integrated them into all walks of St. Louis life. From the early days of Irish immigration, the Irish have prospered and contributed to the life of the St. Louis community. I was surprised to learn that many of these early immigrants who were proud members of the St. Louis Celtic community were Protestants, as was the case among the Irish of Ireland.

The study of the St. Louis Irish gives us an insight into the histories of America, the Irish and the Irish Americans. Here we see that many of the pre-famine Irish immigrants brought educations and mercantile traditions which were maintained in their new homes. Many Irish, barred, like European Jews of the day, from land ownership and the professions, had turned to mercantile trades for the employment of their talents.

As the world approached the middle of the nineteenth century two related events impacted on our story. The failure of the Irish potato crop in the 1840s sent millions of poor, uneducated Catholics teeming onto American shores. For the first time, millions of Catholic, non-Anglo-Saxons threatened the WASP vision of an American culture exclusively its own. In response to this influx, a nativist movement arose which sought to exclude immigrants and Catholics from American society. This movement found its political expression in the "Know Nothing" party in the years before the Civil War.

The "Know Nothing" movement had a significant affect on the St. Louis Irish. With the mass immigration of the Famine Era, the Irish Community became more working class than mercantile, more Catholic than ecumenical, more self contained rather than an integrated into the local community. The altered national mood made the Celtic community one with which Protestants preferred not to be identified. After this time the Protestant Irish tended to identify with and meld into the predominant Anglo-American identity, leaving the Irish community largely Catholic. From this time on, to be Irish, largely meant to be Catholic.

In the later sections of the book, much of the history of the St. Louis Irish is reflected in the history of the Church in St. Louis. Throughout this period, Fr. Faherty does an excellent job of highlighting many Irish people who played prominent roles in the life of the community.

After World War II, the Irish identity became more a memory than an ever present part of our lives. Irish remained active and prominent in many organizations, but the organizations were no longer exclusively or predominantly Irish in their identity and membership. We now shared our parishes with Catholics of other ethnic backgrounds, rather than worshipping in national parishes as had earlier generations. To a large degree, the Irish have merged into the American melting pot. In order to recover that which we have lost, we now study our past to learn what it is to be Irish. Many St. Louis Irish of today know more about Irish history, culture and art than our ancestors to whom Irish was a way of life, rather than an object of study. Reflecting, perhaps, the divisions in Ireland, St. Louis has become a two parade city. St. Louis Irish now have to opportunity to choose between two rival St. Patrick's Day Parades.

It is said that being Irish is a terrible thing-until you consider all the alternatives. The behavior of the Irish is sometimes bewildering, even to ourselves. This book helps us understand better the way we were and how we became the way we are.

History Books

• Nonfiction