Anti-Irish, Anti-Catholic Advertisements were Continuous in Boston Newspapers for Six Decades

Several hundred No Irish Need Apply advertisements appeared in Boston newspapers, starting in the early 1850s and continuing as late as 1912.   The ads revealed a distinctive xenophobia among people from Boston and parts of New England that dates back to the 17th century, when Puritans first settled in this region. 

The region's anti-Irish bigotry became heightened during the second half of the 19th century, when thousands of Irish refugees landed in Boston, escaping from the Irish Famine.  A decade of Know Nothing hatred and violence ensued in the 1850s, and these ads were a manifestation of that hatred.

Despite vigorous protests from the Irish community and from responsible leaders in the community, the ads persisted for some seven decades until they finally phased themselves out.  

The first No Irish Need Apply ad (NINA) in the Boston area appears to have run in the Boston Evening Transcript on March 30, 1852, when an ad seeking an experienced cook and chamber girl was repeated several times, with the caveat, no Irish need apply.  Later that month a similar ad ran, seeking a "smart, tidy girl who could cook, wash and iron in the best fashion."

In total, the Boston Evening Transcript ran at least 120 NINA ads over six decades and finally stopping in August 1915. 

Similarly, the Boston Daily Evening Traveler ran a NINA ad  in August, 1853 by one Ira Martin at a livery stable on Cambridge Street asking for anyone but the Irish; the ad ran 21 days in a row.  

The Boston Globe, launched in 1872, published its first NINA ad on June 11, 1874. The ad specifically proclaimed that no Irish or Swedes need apply.  The Globe ran at least 40 No Irish Need Apply ads between 1874 and June 30, 1912, when the last ad ran, seeking a "housekeeper, nurse cook, seamstress, all that can be desired."

Numerous No Irish Need Apply ads often mentioned other groups such as 'Swedes, Negros, Nova Scotians and Jews,'  but the Irish were always the common denominator in these ads.

On October 28, 1892, the Boston Evening Transcript sought "a girl for general house work in a village 20 minutes from Boston," but added "No Irish Catholics or Negroes need apply."

On July 5, 1894, The Boston Globe ran an ad from Rockingham Fruit Farm in North Epping, NH looking for a "farm hand on poultry and fruit," but added, "no Jews or Irish drunkards need apply."

On September 5, 1895, the Globe's NINA ad for a "superior nurse girl...to care for an old woman confined to bed" stipulated  "No Irish or Nova Scotians need apply."

A majority of the NINA advertisements pertained to Irish women looking for domestic work in private homes, as housekeepers, cooks, companions and laundresses.  Other ads pertained specifically to men seeking farm work or manual labor. 

The New England Farmer, in its February 21, 1856 issue, sought a married couple without children.  The man would handle the "large farm and stock," while the wife would be "a good dairywomen." But "No Irishman need apply."

In addition to the NINA advertisements, dozens of stories, letters-to-the-editor and satires about the Irish appeared regularly in Boston publications during this timeframe and beyond. 

One of the most offensive and egregious stories appeared in the July 25, 1868 issue of Every Saturday, described as 'A Journal of Choice Reading selected from Foreign Current Literature,' published by Ticknor + Fields, a prestigious publishing house on Tremont Street.  Taken from the London Leader, the 1,200 word article entitled No Irish Need Apply  and written by E. P. Cobb, was a slanderous assault on the Irish character that mined the depths of English hatred toward the Irish.  

The article brought immediate condemnation from good-willed Bostonians. The weekly newspaper, Boston Pilot, responded with an editorial, stating,  "in common candor, we ask the publishers of Every Saturday, what good can there be accomplished in a new country, whose policy it is, and has been, to encourage immigration to supply the demands of labor, by the publication of such a stupid re-hash of old exploded English prejudices? Incendiary publications of (this) kind may suit the policy of an old and overpopulated country like England, but surely they cannot be any thing but a curse and a source of unmitigated mischief to a new (country) like this."

Taken together, these slanderous articles and No Irish Need Apply advertisements were meant to marginalize Irish immigrants and prevent them from making their way in Boston and New England.  But the bigotry had the opposite effect, as the Boston Irish proved themselves in every field of endeavor, from business and education to arts and culture, politics and military service.  Today, nearly 20% of residents in New England claim Irish ancestry, making it the most Irish region in the United States. 

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin