I wonder why Irish gangsters, for most part were not included in the syndicate? Jewish gangsters like lepke n shapiro, lansky,bugsy n schultz were brought in the fold but big time irish gangsters were rubbed out or ostracized. I kno a few were associates like jimmy burke n jimmy coonan, never got the feeling they achieved the same level of success or acceptance as jewish gangsters. Even in chicago this occurred. Was lanksy that clever to get jewish gangsters included because the irish had some heavy hitters like owney madden n legs diamond n mad dog coll

This excerpt from the Wikipedia page on the Atlantic City Conference of 1929 explains the absence of an Irish element in the National Syndicate quite well in my opinion:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_City_Conference

Good reply,Billy and I'd agree.

Irish assimilated into the mainstream before Italians and Jews. There were still Irish underworld figures and groups but not enough to be a factor.

The irish was similar to the wasps while the italians (in the first times) had dark skin,were small and spoke another leanguage same thing for the Jews that spoke yddish. Good example was jfk, his father was a white collar and friend of Patriarca sr. Now there was a black president,now there are a orange presidente why there was no italian president ?

Most of the Irish were loose cannons, but they were very prominent in the unions.

Furio,

Irish encountered brutal and ugly prejudice in America, I'd say it was as bad as any White ethnic group encountered here.

Irish need not apply.

What was john lydon book no dogs no irish. Good book read it 20 yrs ago.

the irish were very prominent in the NYC police dept, for many years they were a major force in the NYPD, and in new york politics, tammany hall they held sway. they were more accepted than other immigrants, because they were white, and could speak the english language.

gets, personally i think you are very wrong. as i posted, they were white, and could speak the english language, bringing them politcal power, in nyc, and boston, and many more cities.

Binnie

Remember that Irish went through indentured servitude before major social progression. I could be wrong on this but i think the white slavery code was passed due to Irish being first victims of those crimes.

Binnie,
There was a part of my post that I erased because I thought it could be inflammatory and lead to arguments here. But I'll write it now.
Anti -Irish prejudice which originated in England in pop culture/media was adopted here in the United States.
Fake science which claimed that due to a Irishman's facial structure/head size that he wasn't white....and that he wasn't human. Also the fact that they were Catholics in a largely Protestant country lead to unleashing long held anti Catholic prejudices here. They were also the first large group of poor immigrants to arrive here in waves.

Some of the most brutal riots and terrorist acts directed at white immigrants in our nation's history were directed at the Irish.

From what I gather about the Irish, they expertly made lemonade from lemons. Cop,Fireman were non desirable jobs..dangerous..low paying back then. Irish went into those positions, dominating the ranks and using them as platforms into the middle class. They used civil service jobs and politics to gain power and created their own institutions(churches,schools,political groups) because the mainstream didn't want anything to do with them.

I'd agree to some degree with your point that being able to speak English and not looking different than "mainstream" Americans were advantages they had that later White ethnic groups didn't.Every new immigrant group has to take their lumps and among white groups I don't think others took more lumps than the first groups of the large Irish wave.

I was a young kid when it was time for Haitians to take their lumps.A teacher suggested that I read about American history and how immigrant groups were received. It helped a lot, I learned not to take it personally that it was just history repeating itself. I do remember the teacher telling me that I'd see my group doing it to the next group, which I've seen also.

From a social viewpoint it was all about timing. The Irish had been here in the U.S. for thirty to forty years by the time the Italians and Jews started coming in large numbers. The National Syndicate was primarily for the more upstart and newer immigrant groups.