Treatment of Irish in North and South

[kev67]

There were one or two Irish slurs in North and South. For example, Margaret Hales says she thinks the Bouchers had Irish blood in them, which accounted for them not being very resolute, upstanding people. There was a minor slur when she says remarks a statement is Irish because it was a bit self-contradictory. Mr Thornton brings in Irish workers to break the strike, but finds their standard of workmanship is not very good, which is reasonable because they did not have much experience. A bit later, Thornton tells Higgins he could not compete with an Irishman as a navvy. The book was set very shortly after the Irish Potato Famine, which caused so many Irish people to emigrate.

Anyway, I am interested in economics. While I was looking through the GoodReads top 100 books on economics, I noticed Karl Marx's good friend, Friedrich Engels wrote a book called The Conditions of the Working Class in England. This was written between 1842 and 1844 while he was living in Manchester, which was about ten years before North and South was written. Milton was based on Manchester. I was surprised that several of the reviewers referred to Engels' negative comments about the Irish. I could understand an Englishman being racist towards the Irish, but Engels was German.

[MANICHAEAN]

In context, the Irish of this period and prior, were the negros of today.
The underlying prejudice was not just an English hang-up, but communicated quickly to other Europeans, even if they had no contact with indigenous sons of Erin. Likewise with the Jews.

Not sure if this directly relevant, but my father who was born in Skibbereen, County Cork related to me once his experience in Australia.

" Did you like Australia Dad?"

"No, son. I was in a bar there once and this Australian called me a Pommie bastard."

"What did you do Dad?"

"I laid him out. I'm an Irishman."

[kev67]

I knew there was prejudice against the Irish in Britain earlier in the 20th century. Apparently there were "No Irish, no blacks, no dogs" signs at landladies lodgings for example. In part I put that down to ill-feeling over their rebellion during and after the first world war. Another part I put down to basic xenophobia, and another part to concern over having their wages undercut. It could be that Engels was just reporting what he saw in the mid-19th century. Just because it's unpleasant does not mean it's not true. I'd be interested to read this book anyway. My mother is Irish.

I have not read very much prejudice against Jews in any of the 19th century books I have read recently. I plan to read Oliver Twist in the next year or so. That is quite controversial over the portrayal of Fagin. The other ethnic group that is quite often mentioned in 19th century literature are Gypsies. A Gypsy practice of torturing a cat to foretell the future was mentioned in North and South. Gypsies were also mentioned in Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Far From the Madding Crowd.