Essay About Irish Movement And Irish Potato Famine

Irish Immigration

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The potato, a crop that is very nutritious and easy to grow in the wet, Irish soil crowed out the oats and wheat in the Irish diet. More than three million Irish men, women, and children ate nothing but potatoes in the years before the potato famine. As Irelands population tripled in size in the years before the famine, many people were driven to the mountains and bogs in search of land. Many also left their homeland in search of new land in other countries, especially across the Atlantic Ocean. The Irish were among the first European settlers to North America in the early 1600s, and from the 1700s through the 1900s many more arrived. During the mid 1800s there was a major increase in immigration from Ireland to North America due to the potato famine that plagued the country. According to the journal article, After the Famine: Emigration from Ireland, 1850-1913, between 1850 and 1913 more than 4.5 million men and women left Ireland for a new life overseas . This was after the potato famine; however, many were seeking greater opportunity that North America had to offer.

Their Journey across the AtlanticMany Irish people did not have the means to make the trip across the Atlantic Ocean as a family. Many would travel by themselves in order to establish themselves and send funds back to Ireland to help the rest of the family to pay for the trip. However, many were able to come to North America as indentured servants. They were contracted to work for another for a specified time, in exchange for learning a trade or for travel expenses. Many Irish also traveled to Australia to escape ruined Ireland. These immigrants consisted mostly of Irish convicts. It would take them some time, but they would eventually make it to North America.

The Irish immigrants left Ireland, first on coffin ships and then on steamers. The first ships were called coffin ships because they were overcrowded, full of diseased, and seasick, passengers, as well as bodies of the deceased. The immigrants feared a watery grave if they did not make it to North America alive, however many arrived weakened beyond recovery. These voyages lasted from four to six weeks, depending on how rough the seas were. This also caused many problems because of the lack of food aboard the ships. Many would pass the time by forming friendships with other immigrants. There was even a musical group that formed aboard a ship, consisting of four members of the crew and four passengers . Through all of this, the Irishs indomitable human spirit had shone through all of the adversity.

According to many researchers, depopulation of Ireland would have happened as a result of changing external economic conditions . There was a growing demand for workers in Britain and in North America. However, the famines direct impact on the Irish population was considerable. Although the changing economic conditions started the depopulation of Ireland, the famine was a significant reason why millions of Irish people left their homeland. Many Irish people left Ireland after the end of the famine because they feared that recurrence

of it.North American LivingUnfortunately, due to the multitudes of Irish immigrants that came to North America, the facilities to house these people were few and far between. The housing that was available was expensive and overcrowded. The overflow of Irish settled in backyards and alleys that surrounded houses in the cities. They built wooden shacks in order to stay out of the sometimes harsh environment. People also lived in cellars with low ceiling that flooded often, old warehouses and other buildings that were abandoned. These abandoned building were converted to homes by putting up wood partitions that offered little to no privacy.

Life was very difficult in North America for the early immigrants. According to Timothy W. Guinnane, the huge upturn in emigration during the famine deposited a large number of Irish people in the fastest-growing industrial economy of the 19th Century, North America. Although they traveled to the land of opportunity, they were unable to find work because they were farmers. They had no apparent skills that would benefit employers. The opportunities that were available to immigrants in North America were primarily skilled trades. However, some Irish immigrants were able to find work as domestic servants. Women and children would work for other families in order to survive. Single Irish women found work as cooks and maids in houses belonging to wealthy families. Many lived inside the homes in the servants quarters and enjoyed a standard of living luxurious compared to the life they had known in Ireland. The women were cheerful, kind-hearted, hard working and thrifty, always managing to save a little money out of their salary for those back in Ireland.

Irish males went to work providing the backbreaking labor needed to build canals and roads in the rapidly expanding country. They also ran factories, built railroads in the West, and worked in mines. The massive Erie Canal project, for example, was built by Irishmen working from dawn till dusk for a dollar-a-day. They hand dug their way westward through the rugged wilderness of upstate New York. The 363 mile-long canal became the main east-west commerce route and encouraged Americas early economic growth by considerably lowering the costs of getting goods to the markets.

Religious PersecutionDuring the 1700s, many of the immigrants were mostly Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, the so-called “Scotch-Irish.”