It is unclear whether the paddy wagon got its name from the Irish who were hauled off in police wagons in the late 19th century or from the Irish cops who threw them in there in the first place.
What is clear is that when the Irish descended upon America starting in the 1840’s, it created social disruption, political chaos, and a crime wave for a generation.
My great great grandfather on my father’s side was one of those Paddys who came to New York fleeing a desperate potato famine in the 1840’s, and while I don’t know for sure if old Tom Feehery ever ended up in a paddy wagon, I know for sure that some of his friends probably did. Tom Feehery was a legal immigrant, but old Joe Hurley (my mother’s grandfather) probably wasn’t.
The No-Nothing Party was founded as a reaction to the Irish masses. It didn’t do much to stop them though, and pretty soon the Irish were running the big cities, dominating the police forces and fire departments, and making in-roads into the Democratic party North of the Mason-Dixon line.
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