ABSTRACT
The 1930s were a time of transition for Irish America, with 1931 being, according to historian J. J. Lee, a date that looms large in Irish-American historiography because it “marks the end of the immigration fl ow that had lasted since before the Famine” (36). The reduction in Irish immigration to the U.S. was extreme; in the 1920s, approximately 211,000 Irish immigrated to America, but that number declines to just 11,000 in the 1930s (Almeida 549). Though there were several contributing factors to this sudden drop-off, including more stringent U.S. immigration policies introduced in 1921 and 1924, the main cause was the Great Depression. With little to no prospects for work in America, fewer Irish emigrants came across the Atlantic.
