5.3: tensions

• | immigration

  irish immigrants

  • young men who came to London to move to America but ran out of money
  • settled in areas near rivers
  • violence amongst them, especially when drunk, was common and they were not liked
• | fenians

  • irish nationalists were demanding freedom from the UK led by fenian- a fanatical catholic group
  • Organised bomb attack on a prison in the 1860s which led to a huge surge of anti-irish & anti-catholics
  • Because of this, special branch was forced to counter Irish terrorism
  • everyone saw irish as fenians
• | Jewish immigrants

  • 1881 tsar alexander assassinated & a jew was blamed
  • wave of violence & abuse
  • Jewish settlers were widely resented due to cultural differences & conflicting attitudes to work & business
  • compared to poor working class locals, jewish workers seemed quick to find employment or set up businesses; locals resented their success
  • some established european immigrants prefer employing newer arrivals arrivals to locals as they were desperate for work and accepted lower wages
  • religious rules about food & culture made them strand out & no need to learn English; locals were suspicious