Lace curtain and shanty Irish

Common card · No. 235472

Lace curtain Irish and shanty Irish are terms that were commonly used in the 19th and 20th centuries to categorize Irish Americans, by social class. The "lace curtain Irish" were those who were well-off, while the "shanty Irish" were the poor, who were presumed to live in shanties, or roughly built cabins. Neither term was complimentary. Aside from financial status, the term "lace curtain Irish" connoted pretentiousness and social climbing, while the "shanty Irish" were stereotyped as feckless and ignorant. Though lace curtains later became commonplace in Irish-American working-class homes, "lace curtain" was still used in a metaphorical, and often pejorative, sense. In the early 20th century, James Michael Curley, a famously populist Boston politician who was called "mayor of the poor", used the term "cut glass Irish" to mock the Irish-American middle class, but the term did not catch on. The term “two-toilet Irish” has also been used as a synonym for lace curtain Irish. Irish Americans...

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