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From: Walter Josephy <>
Subject: Re: [UK-Irish] On Irish Emigration
Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 11:23:58 -0700
References: <2b62801c66f94$1aee0fd0$8f403fce@jean>


Again, excellent info... I shall look for the books. Jean, can you recommend
a specific journal/periodical that deals with the movement of Irish people
to Britain in the 19th Century?
Susan
Canada

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean R." <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 9:02 AM
Subject: [UK-Irish] On Irish Emigration


> SNIPPET: Researchers interested in Irish emigration might look to D. H.
> AKENSON's book "The Irish Diaspora: A Primer" (1993) and David
> FITZPATRICK's "Irish Emigration, 1801-1921," (1984), in addition to many
> others.
>
> Per Mr. AKENSON: Emigration as a concept in Irish historical writing and
> social criticism has a set of connotations and contextual limitations
> different from those which generally apply to European writing. In the
> world literature, migration, which means out-migration, is joined to
> in-migration (or immigration) to cover the general phenomenon of human
> movement, usually permanent, from one region or nation to another. The
> conceptual apparatus is not, for the most part, emotionally loaded and,
> therefore, dispassionate 'laws' (or, at least, tendencies) for worldwide
> migration have been articulated by historians and social observers.
>
> 'Emigration' from Ireland, however, departs from this world-based
> conceptual structure in several ways. First, emigration is rarely seen as
> being part of a general migration process in which in-migration is
> recognized as being as important as out-migration. Secondly, emigration
> is usually treated as a singularly Irish phenomenon and not as part of
> larger processes which, in fact, affected all of Western Europe during the
> same period. Third, emigration in much (though not all) of the literature
> is treated as something tragic, or as something for which the nation
> should be ashamed. A synthetic layer of 'exile' is cast over the entire
> phenomenon, even though it is clear that the majority of those who
> emigrated from Ireland did so as part of a set of conscious decisions
> which, in most cases, improved their life-chances.
>
> Historians of emigration in Ireland have yet to resolve two central issues
> of debate. the first is the extent to which emigrants from Ireland were
> selected. That is, did the best leave, or the dregs, and what does the
> answer mean for understanding the Irish society which the emigrants left
> behind? The second question is whether or not the large-scale migration
> hurt Ireland economically. On the one hand, economic historians point
> out the surplus labourers were siphoned off, thus reducing the number of
> economically dependent individuals. A counter-argument suggests that the
> individuals who left were those most likely to have been the recipients of
> social investment (especially primary education) and that their emigration
> effectively exported to other nations the Irish social capital invested in
> them.
>
> Although emigration from Ireland began in the pre-Christian era, it became
> a large-scale phenomenon only in the age of the first English empire, with
> considerable (but untallied) numbers leaving Ireland during the 17th and
> 18th centuries, sometimes for the Continent (the European mainland), more
> often for the British colonies in the western hemisphere.
>
> Mass emigration, however, began only at the close of the revolutionary and
> Napoleonic wars. Although sizeable emigration continues to the present
> day, the era of mass emigration from Ireland was from 1815 to the
> beginning of the First World War. A reasonable estimate is that between
> 1801 and 1921 at least 8 million Irish men, women, and children
> permanently left the country. Thus, the claim made by President Mary
> ROBINSON, in December 1990, that there are over all the world 70 million
> persons who claim as part of their cultural heritage at least partial
> Irish descent, is not excessive.
>
> As for destinations, a simple formulation is that, prior to the Great
> Famine (1845-9) Canada was the most common destination for Irish
> emigrants; between the Famine and the First World War, it was the United
> States of America; thereafter, it was Great Britain.
>
> Among the most notable characteristics of Irish emigration from 1815 to
> the present day is that (uniquely among European nations) Irish women were
> as large a part of the emigrant stream as were Irish men. This had
> implications both for Ireland (unlike most European countries, a surplus
> of single females did not develop) and for the new homelands: the numbers
> of women were sufficiently balanced to make it possible for Irish-born
> persons to marry within their own ethnic group.
>
> Per S. J. CONNOLLY - Australia received only about 5 per cent of the
> emigrants who left Ireland during the 19th century. These, however, made
> up nearly a quarter of all immigrants during that period. A proportion of
> Irish arrivals came by transportation, many of them being joined
> subsequently by wives and children. Of the remainder, a majority received
> some form of government assistance towards the cost of a long and
> expensive journey. The largest groups of emigrants came from a group of
> south-midland counties (Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick, Clare) and from
> south and central Ulster (Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone). Irish immigration
> peaked during the gold rush of the 1850s and fell off sharply after the
> 1880s.
>
> Reliance on assisted passage meant that settlement in Australia was
> determined less by pressures in Ireland than by the needs of the colony:
> there was, in particular, no great surge of migrants during the Great
> Famine. Closer official regulation may also help to explain why Irish
> settlers in Australia were more evenly distributed, both geographically
> and in terms of occupation and social status, than was initially the case
> in the United States and elsewhere. In addition their status as the
> second largest ethnic group (after the English) made them less vulnerable
> to discrimination.
>
> The legend of bushranger Ned KELLY (1854-80), along with overemphasis on
> transportation as a route to Australia, has encouraged a stereotype of
> outcast rebelliousness. Mid-19th-century statistics reveal that Irishmen
> were indeed over-represented among convicted criminals, but also within
> the police force. Most of the Irish born who achieved prominence in the
> early decades of Australian history were from the Protestant middle and
> upper classes, like Sir Richard BOURKE, governor of New South Wales
> 1831-8. However, Michael DWYER, Gavan DUFFY, and Daniel MANNIX, in their
> different ways, provided examples of what was to become an increasingly
> well-established pattern of pragmatic assimilation. In politics, the
> Irish of Australia strongly supported home rule for Ireland, but showed
> less enthusiasm for the separatist republicanism that later displaced it.
>
>
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