The Paddy CampsThe dramatic story of the fights and compromises that shaped an Irish community Disdained by many Yankee residents as Catholic lowlifes, the growing Irish population of the Lowell, Massachusetts, paddy camps in the nineteenth century proved a tempting source of cheap labor for local mill owners, who took advantage of the immigrants proximity to exploit them to the fullest. Displaced by their cheaper labor, other workers blamed the Irish for job losses