Introduction
The scale of Irish emigration is extraordinary. Since 1700 about 10 million men, women and children have emigrated from Ireland. That number is more than twice the current population of the Republic of Ireland (4.6 million), it exceeds the population of the island of Ireland (6.5 million), and it is greater than the population of Ireland at its historical peak on the eve of the Great Famine (8.5 million). An estimated 70 million people worldwide claim some degree of Irish descent, including about 40 million Americans who list ‘Irish’ as their primary ethnicity. In approaching Irish emigration from a comparative perspective, three principal frameworks suggest themselves: comparisons by period, comparisons with other European countries and comparisons by country of destination. The first approach has the virtue of breaking down a long and complex history into distinct chronological periods, revealing the distinctive characteristics of each period and thereby countering a pervasive tendency to approach Irish emigration as an undifferentiated whole. The second approach reveals that, although the Irish famine was unique and the late nineteenth century highly distinctive, earlier and later periods of Irish emigration had much in common with their European counterparts. The third approach uncovers the nationally specific conditions that shaped the histories of Irish emigrants in their various countries of settlement abroad, once again serving as a corrective against a tendency to homogenise. This chapter will begin by considering the first two approaches together, examining the origins and processes of Irish emigration by chronological period and drawing some comparisons with other European emigrations. A brief analysis of the main patterns in the social history of the Irish abroad will follow.
Comparisons by Period and by Country of Destination
The history of Irish emigration falls naturally into six distinct periods: the long eighteenth century (to 1815), the pre-Great Famine generation (1815–45), the famine decade (1846–55), the post-famine era (1856–1921), the twentieth century after 1921, and the early twenty-first century. Emigration in these periods varied by origin, social composition, religion and destination. Relative to the size of its population, Ireland had the highest emigration rate in Europe for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yet, although the broad demographic patterns are clear, detailed cross-country comparisons on the origins and character of Irish emigration are lacking.