From: An Anglo-American Reader [Email Him] I know you have written several times in the past about the "No Irish Need Apply" signs and how they are largely a myth. You may not be aware that recently the web has been abuzz with reports that the idea the signs were a myth has been demonstrated to be false by a 14 year old student from Washington, D.C. named Rebecca Fried.
The website irishcentral.com has run numerous stories on this issue over the last month but stories have also appeared on the websites of the Washington Post, the Smithsonian, and the Daily Beast. Supposedly Fried proved that NINA signs existed and were common because she searched digitized newspaper databases and found examples of the NINA phrase.
From my own reading of the recent evidence though she really has done no such thing but rather merely found just a few more examples of ads in print out of millions of pages of digitized newspaper. Yet all the articles online are touting the idea that a professor has been debunked and out smarted by a 14 year old. Professor Richard Jensen [Email him] has written a new article defending himself at the link below.
James Fulford writes: Whether "No Irish Need Apply" signs were common in the past or not, they're now a source of Historical Grievance Porn. The image at the top is not a historical sign, it's a refrigerator magnet that you can order online, as a way of keeping memories of historical oppression, how shall I put it? Ah, yes. Green.
Peter Brimelow mentioned some of the reasons that 19th century Americans might have been skeptical about Irish immigration in Alien Nation. You can see how Irish-Americans reacted here and here.
