Irish CommunitiesLesson starter:1. Write down three adjectives which describe the

kind of housing Irish immigrants lived in.

2. Why was housing so poor in Scotland?

Today we will…• Understand why Irish immigrants

stayed together• Understand the importance of the

Roman Catholic Church to the Irish settlers

Segregation• Irish settlers usually

stuck together – they moved to areas where there was already an Irish community

• Many Irish were Catholic and Scotland was majority Protestant

• They knew people were also suspicious of them

• They wanted to be around familiar people

Govanhill

Clada Social Club Holy Cross Church

Irish pubs

Royston

Gaelic Football Team

St Roch’s Ceilidh Band

St Patrick’s Day Marches

• To new Irish settlers, the Catholic Church became the centre of their lives in Scotland

• It was the only link to their homeland

Glasgow Cathedral

Why was the Catholic Church so important to Irish Catholic Immigrants?

It allowed them to carry on worshipping in

the way they knew

Irish could gather together at Church

and help one another, share information etc

Priests were often Irish

Social Life: trips, dances, shows, sports teams

etc

It provided schools for Catholic children

The Church helped those in need e.g. Saint Vincent de Paul, League of the

Cross

Successes of the Catholic Church• Priests knew

parishioners well and tried their best to help them (financially or with homes etc)

• Successful football teams set up by Church i.e. Celtic which provided for poor immigrants

• The schools were very good (still successful even though they are no longer funded by The Church)