An aspect of the Irish famine that, understandably, has received relatively little attention until very recently is the famine refugee problem in those British towns that bore the brunt of the exodus from Ireland. Large numbers of destitute Irish, men, women and children, fled to Britain to escape the nightmare being enacted in Ireland, hoping to obtain relief and the possibility of work and a new life not characterised by extreme hardship. This massive movement of people was only possible because of the existence of well-established shipping lanes between Ireland and Britain. The most important British ports of entry were Liverpool and Glasgow. This chapter sets out to establish the evidence concerning the role of the coal trade in facilitating the movement of Irish refugees into south Wales during the famine years. In particular, I shall argue that the industrial developments in Britain that were already drawing pre-famine Irish to its industrial areas also made possible the flight of large numbers of Irish to south Wales, seeking to escape the death, disease and suffering of a famine-stricken country. This essay sets out to place the Irish famine refugee crisis in south Wales in the context of the regional economy and its economic nexus with the south-eastern counties of Ireland. It should be noted that the term ‘Wales’ used here includes Monmouthshire, despite the fact that in the census reports Monmouthshire data are kept separate from those of the other 12 Welsh counties.

I

For thousands of years the mineral ore deposits lying under the surface of the hills and valleys of south Wales were, literally, useless. This lack of utility ended, for all practical purposes, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, when various technological developments and their commercial exploitation coalesced to transform the coal and ore deposits into valuable economic resources. In essence, the development of the steam engine increased the demand for coal for industrial use while the emergence of iron and copper as materials in both construction and consumer products accelerated the mining activities in the region. The successful exploitation of these mineral deposits could only take place if there was a simultaneous provision of transport facilities.