“…Irish Americans were considered Celts, a lesser white race (Ferguson, 2018; Jacobson, 1999; Painter, 2010; Saxton, 1971). Scholars have shown how Irish Americans in nineteenth century California experienced greater social and economic mobility than their compatriots on the East Coast, where racial and class hierarchies were more established and rigid (Campbell, 2002; Jacobson, 1999; O’Neill, 2009, Paddison, 2009). Still, although some Catholic Irish Americans rose to prominence in San Francisco, Protestants and those racially coded as Anglo-Saxons remained at the apex of the social, racial, and economic hierarchies in California and throughout the U.S. (O’Neill, 2009).…”