Dublin-born impresario in New York highlighted anti-Irish sentiment

 

On the 22nd of July 1984, approximately forty thousand people gathered at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork to hear performances by Leo Sayer, Christy Moore, and the Wolfe Tones. During this one-day Siamsa Cois Laoi music festival, the crowd also heard superstar Don McLean sing his mega-hit ‘American Pie’, as well as the old folk song ‘No Irish Need Apply’, delivered by McLean in a rollicking, singalong style. As we shall see, however, this song – which by 1984 was one hundred and twenty years old – chronicled a dark chapter in Anglo-American history.

Irish emigrants who went in search of work in Britain frequently encountered what became known as ‘the NINA’, that is, a publicly displayed sign or a newspaper ad which clearly stipulated that ‘no Irish need apply’. As far back as the 15th of February, 1825, the London Morning Advertiser published the following notice: ‘Wanted for a Public House, a servant of all work. Apply at the Red Lion, Hampstead. No Irish need apply’.

This curious ‘employment clause’ soon found its way to parts of America, much to the dismay of John F. Poole (1833-1893), an Irishman who left his native Dublin to set up home in New York.

Having worked for a while as a clerk, Poole later established himself as an impresario in the music business, becoming a hugely successful songwriter, dramatist, and theatre owner. Many of his songs, such as ‘McLaughlin’s Party’ and ‘McGuinness’s Raffle’, were performed on stage by his close friend and confidante Tony Pastor (1837-1908), billed as ‘the great comic-vocalist of the age’. In 1862, the lyrics of Poole’s biting satire ‘No Irish Need Apply’ (as sung in Cork by Don McLean) were published as a broadsheet by Henry Marsan of New York. Not at all surprising then that in 1864, Poole’s lyrics were also included in Tony Pastor’s Complete Budget of Comic Songs.

There is no doubt that the Poole and Pastor partnership did much to make people aware of these unseemly NINA signs and ads, but it would take many years before they would disappear entirely from public view.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own