Who Is Pete Seeger's Song 'No Irish Need Apply'

Discrimination towards immigrants is, unfortunately, a staple of the United States for many, many years. In the 1800’s, as Irish families emigrated to the States during the great potato famine, they faced no greater discrimination than the “No Irish Need Apply” printed on help wanted signs (“No Irish Need Deny”). Folksinger Pete Seeger performed a song dubbed “No Irish Need Apply” in 1954, and the song very much so describes that era. Seeger, well known not only for his Music, but for his controversial activism and lack-of-openness in his political views (“Resurrecting the Red”). While “No Irish Need Apply is not one of his more well-known pieces, this song truly provides the listeners to a fairly accurate perspective of the intolerance of the Irishmen who looked for work. Seeger’s piece begins with the narrative of a man looking for work and finding a help wanted ad, believing it to be just what he was looking for. However, at the very end of the advertisement were four words he was appalled to see: “No Irish Need Apply.” Rather upset by the phrase, for he was quite proud to be an Irishman as stated in the line that reads “…to me it is

In that time, much like today, the United States’ citizens were rather concerned with which side you took and whether you were for communism or not. Pete Seeger was, in 1955, investigated for his ties to the US’s Communist Party and while under investigation, he refused to answer ANY personal questions revolving around his stance in politics, whether it’d be who he voted for in the election, his beliefs and anything else that he considered “improper questions for any American to be asked.” (“Pete Seeger, Musical Revolutionary”). While “No Irish” was released a year earlier, the narrative of Irish discrimination and his investigations could connect as a stance against discrimination and prejudice