Servants of the Poor: Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and Irish America (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Servants of the Poor: Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and Irish America William H. Mulligan Jr. Servants of the Poor: Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and Irish America, by Janet Nolan . Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004, pp. 191. $45 (cloth), $18 (paper). Janet Nolan's Servants of the Poor adds to the growing literature on the role that women played in Irish assimilation and social mobility in the United States. Women's experiences need to be included, centrally, in the study of the Irish Catholic experience in America before; it is good to have this important point so effectively brought to the fore yet again. The Irish-American women public school teachers studied here offer information both on women's lives and on the dynamics of Irish assimilation. Focusing on the experience of Irish women [End Page 158] as National School teachers in Ireland, and in three cities with significant Irish populations—Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco—Nolan develops a series of in-depth accounts to support the provocative thesis that women, especially those who became public school teachers, played a critical role in the movement of Irish Catholics into the American middle class. Significantly, Nolan also argues for shifting the focus of investigation from male education, employment, and career paths to those of Irish immigrant females when studying mobility in both Ireland and the United States. An especially important aspect of this book is Nolan's attention to the experience of women as National School teachers in Ireland. She establishes that teaching school was already an avenue of upward mobility open to, and used by, women in Ireland, prior to emigration to the United States. In fact, she demonstrates that individuals who began preparing to be National School teachers in Ireland sometimes pursued the same career in the United States, or that their daughters did. Historians have seldom explored the continuities between emigrants' experiences in Ireland and in their new homes; Nolan demonstrates the value of such an approach. One small point regarding the title: "servants of the poor" may not accurately describe the work of the teachers discussed in the book. When one takes into account the literature on high school attendance during the period covered, especially the early years, it may be more accurate to describe these women as servants of other young women who aspired to upward mobility and middle-class status. In no way does that diminish the contribution that Servants of the Poor makes to studies of the Irish in America: to suggest a broad area for future research, and to show clearly its potential benefit., is a major accomplishment. Copyright © 2005 The University of St. Thomas