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I've recently been doing research into discrimation against Irish people in USA. I'll just say I was suprised, seriously, for the sheer number of plastic paddies around today you'd never expect that the Irish immigrants were seen to be on the same level as Black people, some sort of sub-human, ape-like creature that would never amount to anything if left to its own devices.

This has got be thinking of a potential TL. I read a brief essay on the subject of interactions between the Irish migrants and the free Blacks in pre-Civil war America. The two people were seen as incredibly smilar by Americans, almost identical if not for skin colour, it was even speculated that the Irish had a direct ancestoral link to Africa. As such, they were often assigned similar menial jobs, and shared living space in the ghettoes of the northern cities. Due to the close contact, scholars of the time determined that if the gap between Caucasian and African people was to be briged, it would be done with the Irish and the Blacks in America.

Anyway, the essay went on to describe how in their efforts to lose their connection with the Backs, the Irish decided to start "acting American", namely by discrimnating against their Black co-workers in the labour market. Their were anti-Black riots, the Irish dominence of the Trade Unions meant that Blacks had no say in the workplace, and the Irish support for the Demorcats helped to keep the more anti-Slavery Republicans our of the White House. This caused a stir across the Atlantic, as Daniel O'Connell "The Emancipator", wrote to Irish communities in America to encourage them to support the emancipation of the Slaves as he was fighting for the emancipation of Irish Catholics in their homeland. This however failed, the Irish continued to oppose the Blacks intrusion into "their work", instead believing that they should be sent south to work on the plantations.

My inital aim is a TL where the relationship between the Irish and Black communities remains cordial, if not friendly. The POD I have in mind will be during the Great Famine. A harsher potato blight and a greater degree of anti-Irish sentiment from the British government and colonies increases the number of cases of immigration to America.

What do people think so far?
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