The Irish Bridget : Irish immigrant women in domestic service in America, 1840-1930 / Margaret Lynch-Brennan ; with a foreword by Maureen O'Rourke Murphy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lynch-Brennan, Margaret.

Series:

Irish studies (Syracuse, N.Y.)

Irish studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Household employees--United States--History--19th century.

Household employees.

Household employees--United States--History--20th century.

Immigrants--United States--History--19th century.

Immigrants.

Irish American women.

History.

United States.

Immigrants--United States--History--20th century.

Irish American women--United States--History--19th century.

Irish American women--United States--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

xxii, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2009.

Summary:

The Irish Bridget migrated to live and work as a domestic servant in an American world that was very different from Ireland. Most of the Irish Bridgets were Roman Catholics, while the America to which they came was a very Protestant country. ... These Irish girls came from people of limited means, but generally lived and worked in the homes of middle- and upper-middle-class Americans. In the urban Northeast, in the homes of (generally) Protestant Americans, Bridget and her American mistress (as the female employer was known) faced each other across a gulf of class, cultural, ethnic, and religious differences. It was the American home, rather than urban politics or industry, that constituted the most familiar frontier of contact between Irish immigrants and middle-class Americans. Americans' view of the Irish, and the Irish view of Americans, was strongly influenced by the close personal interaction of Americans with the Irish servants who both lived and worked in the private American home. -From The Irish Bridget

Contents:

Home life in Ireland

From Ireland

To America

The world of the American mistress

The work world of the Irish Bridget

The social world of the Irish Bridget

Was Bridget's experience unique?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-208) and index.

ISBN:

9780815632016

0815632010

OCLC:

281090526