From 1845 to 1849, Ireland experienced what is known as the Great Hunger, or the Irish Potato Famine, which was caused by a fungal blight on Ireland’s staple food crop. During that time, around one million Irish people died of hunger, while another two million emigrated to other countries, mainly to the United States. Most of these Irish immigrants were poor and unskilled, and because of their Roman Catholic faith, they also faced prejudice from the established population of America, which was primarily Protestant. Ironically, the same religious tensions that the Irish people experienced in their home country followed them to their new home. It was not uncommon for an Irish job-seeker in the late 1800s to see signs on workplaces stating, “No Irish Need Apply.” That the impoverished Irish immigrants would take jobs for lower pay also created resentments among other immigrant groups.

In 1892, the immigration center at Ellis Island opened. The first immigrant processed there was a teenage Irish girl similar to the main character of Ashes for Roses. She was the first of 12 million immigrants who passed through Ellis Island until its close in 1954. (“Ellis Island.