The History of the Irish Famine
The Exodus: Emigration and the Great Irish Famine
- 306 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
The Great Irish Famine remains one of the most lethal famines in modern world history and a watershed moment in the development of modern Ireland â socially, politically, demographically and culturally. In the space of only four years, Ireland lost twenty-five per cent of its population as a consequence of starvation, disease and large-scale emigration. Certain aspects of the Famine remain contested and controversial, for example the issue of the British government's culpability, proselytism, and the reception of emigrants. However, recent historiographical focus on this famine has overshadowed the impact of other periods of subsistence crisis, both before 1845 and after 1852.
This volume examines how the failure of the potato crop in the late 1840s led to the mass exodus of 2.1 million people between 1845 and 1855. They left for destinations as close as Britain and as far as the United States, Canada and Australia, and heralded an era of mass migration which saw another 4.5 million leave for foreign destinations over the next half-century. How they left, how they settled in the host countries and their experiences with the local populations are as wide and varied as the numbers who left and, using extensive primary sources, this volume analyses and assesses this in the context of the emigrants themselves and in the new countries they moved.
Frequently asked questions
Part I
The exodus
1
Petition from Margaret Cassidy (a widow) to W.S. Trench1 (Lord Shirleyâs agent),2 dated Apr. 1846 (PRO,NI, Shirley Papers, D3531/A), that the landlord would pay the passage fare of her son to North America as she does not have the resources. Has five acre farm at Fath, Co. Monaghan, but has lost her potato crop
Notes
2
Report from Belmullet, Co. Mayo of emigrants leaving on the Unity bound for North America citing the reasons they were leaving including the failure of the potato crop and the issue of rent arrears payments, Mayo Telegraph,1 22 April 1846
Notes
3
Petition from the labourers from the Rattibarren barony, Co. Sligo to the Government outlining their poverty and asking for aid to be sent to North America, promising to repay any loans they received.1 Appendix to Minutes taken before the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonisation, HC 1847 (737 â ii) vi, p. 197
Notes
4
Letter of James Prendergast in Milltown,1 Co. Kerry to his son, Thomas, in Boston, 18 Jun. 1848, thanking him and his siblings for remittances they were sending back to help the family survive.2 Shelly Barber (ed), The Prendergast Letters: Correspondence from Famine-Era Ireland, 1840â1850 (Amherst & Boston, 2006), pp 130â32
No 16 Pearplace
Boston
State of Massachuesetts
N. America
My dear Children
I received your letter of the 30th of May last containing a check for seven Pounds.3 It was a timely relief and tho I want it I assure you I felt more on your account than I did on my own account. I feared that some mishap had befallen ye as I heard not from ye for a long time. I was in debt one pound nineteen shillings which I borrowed time after time, since what you sent me was spent. I was in a very bad state of health and I feared I would have died before your relief would reach me and that I would be a burthen on the parish for my funeral necessary but, thank God, I received a new life when I received your letter and not so much on account of the order, as on account of the account it contains that ye are all well. It is always said that he who has tender and careful children is happy. In that case I am really so, for my sons and daughter are so and I will say that I have two of the best children in the world, while I have Julia and Con. My dear children ye can be neither jealous nor displeased when I say that I am more thankful to him than to my [âŚ] own. At the same time I have cause to thank you all. Mr Quill Manager of the National Bank cashed the Bill for your Mother on yesterday. She is so well that she left this place yesterday morning and arrived here in the Evening with the amount of her order. James Maurice was here. She gave him the three Pounds which ye ordered to carry to his father. Also the letter which ye sent (to his father), arrived here early in the evening and we carried it. His father said before this that he wrote ye consenting and praying that ye would take out the boy. James himself said so on yesterday. It is the only wish of the Boy. Ye need not delay to send for him as soon as ye receive this for I assure ye it is the wish of all his family both father and Mother as well as himself. His father will write directly and I am sure ye will have his letter, unless it miscarry, sooner than mine. If he were over once He ought to help his own family and free ye from a part of your cares here on this side. He desires to remember him to his aunt Julia and uncle Con4 and adds that every one of his family have the same wish as, in gratitude and every other respect as they are more indebted to Con than to their own blood relatives for his kindness. James says that if he were with ye he would try to shew (sic) ye that he knows what he and his family owe ye for your kindles and good natures. Mich(ea)ls Wife and children are well, and so are his fatherinlw and Motherinlaw. They are really attentive to children. His Wife is as attentive to us as daughter could be. They are doing well and would be glad to hear daily if possible from him. Tell Michl that he would not forget Michl Ginnaw for 18 shillings which was due to him when Michl left there. He knows that I am bound for it and that only Michl Ginna is so indulgent he should have paid long since, but he should not be forgotten on that account. Your Mother and I may say, every ...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I The exodus
- Part II Support for emigration as a solution to famine
- Part III Attitude in the colonies to the emigration
- Part IV Experiences of the emigrants on the Atlantic crossing
- Part V The Famine emigrantsâ experiences abroad
- Part VI Where to go to?
- Part VII The Poor Law and emigration
- Part VIII Opposition to emigration
- Bibliography
- Keywords