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| Falley, Margaret Dickson. ''Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research.'' 2 vols. Evanston, Illinois: Margaret Dickson Falley, 1961-62. (Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlehitlist&columns=*%2C0%2C0&callno=941.5+D27f+ book Ref 941.5 D27f 2 vols].) | | Falley, Margaret Dickson. ''Irish and Scotch-Irish Ancestral Research.'' 2 vols. Evanston, Illinois: Margaret Dickson Falley, 1961-62. (Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlehitlist&columns=*%2C0%2C0&callno=941.5+D27f+ book Ref 941.5 D27f 2 vols].) |
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| == Reasons Irish Emigrated == | | == Reasons Irish Emigrated == |
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| The Irish in history had many reasons for leaving Ireland. As well many among those remaining in Ireland '''would''' have emigrated but were unable to, due to the abject poverty and severe circumstances incident to i.e. health, in which they found themselves. | | The Irish in history had many reasons for leaving Ireland. As well many among those remaining in Ireland '''would''' have emigrated but were unable to, due to the abject poverty and severe circumstances incident to i.e. health, in which they found themselves. |
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| Generally, the Irish had very strong reasons for emigrating to countries abroad. The main reasons were due to an intolerable convergeance of circumstances due dire economic conditions of destitute families, political persecution such as the Crown's Penal laws, harsh social and religious policies towards most nonconformists, and a series of circumstances surrounding devastating crop failures especially in the mid-19th Century. For a more complete list detailing the reasons for emigrating Ireland, see "[[Compelling Reasons Why The Irish Emigrated]]". | | Generally, the Irish had very strong reasons for emigrating to countries abroad. The main reasons were due to an intolerable convergeance of circumstances due dire economic conditions of destitute families, political persecution such as the Crown's Penal laws, harsh social and religious policies towards most nonconformists, and a series of circumstances surrounding devastating crop failures especially in the mid-19th Century. For a more complete list detailing the reasons for emigrating Ireland, see "[[Compelling Reasons Why The Irish Emigrated]]". |
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| The Irish in history had many reasons for leaving Ireland. As well many among those remaining in Ireland would have emigrated but were unable to, due to the severe circumstances in which they were placed. [See [["Compelling Reasons Why The Irish Emigrated"]] The intolerable conditions in Ireland which forced Irish emigrants to leave Ireland were mostly caused by the following four reasons:
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| === Political Culture of Persecution ===
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| *Austere taxation and tithes policies
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| *Continual doctrine of ‘Conquer and divide’ policies from medieval times throughout the centuries seized land and evicted native Irish Catholics from their own lands
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| *Cruel landlords (not all)
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| *Sponsorship of land price increases, allowed to unbearable levels; tossed hoards of already poor families, ‘out onto the street’
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| *Disallowance of land ownership for all Catholics
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| *‘Rent-racking’ on land rentals on Catholic farmers forced many to leave, or out onto the streets
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| === Economic ===
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| *British government backed England’s grain exportations—but not Ireland’s; farmers left
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| *Grains out of Ireland, were exported to England, while Irish were dying from the famine
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| *New farming techniques increased output, decreasing the need for agricultural laborers
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| *Manufacturing industries sprang up, causing less emphasis in farming
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| === Social ===
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| A culture of religious persecution by the local Protestant-led and British Crown government was manifest in—
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| *distrust of Catholics’ loyalty to the Crown
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| Harsh Penal laws from 1695, stripped all Catholics of their rights to—
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| *vote
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| *practice law
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| *enter a profession
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| *hold public office
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| *receive an education
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| *practice their own religion outside of the Protestant faith
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| *serve as officers in British armed forces
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| *teach in, or enroll in colleges
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| *defend themselves with weapons
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| *be employed or an employer in a trade or in commerce
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| *build a church or live within 5 miles of the civil parish church
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| *own a horse of greater value than five pounds
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| *purchase nor lease land
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| *hold a life annuity
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| *buy or receive a gift of land from a Protestant
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| *inherit land or moveables from a Protestant
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| *rent any land that was worth more than thirty shillings a year
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| *reap from his land any profit exceeding a third of the rent
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| *be a guardian to a child
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| *leave infant children under Catholic guardianship
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| *accept a mortgage on land in security for a loan
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| *attend Catholic worship
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| *choose between attendance in a Catholic, or a Protestant place of worship
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| *educate his child
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| *be instructed by a local Catholic teacher nor be educated abroad
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| === Crop Failures ===
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| *Devastating crop failures—especially from 1846 to 1851 killed nearly a million people
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| *British government’s lack of food aid to Ireland during The Great Famine forced nearly half the surviving population to leave Ireland
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| *Famine brought abject poverty, severe malnutrition inducing poor health, and affected (even to some--death) to 3-4 million Irish
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| === Further Reading ===
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| O hEithir, Breandan, A Pocket History of Ireland, The O'Brien Press, Dublin, Ireland, 1989
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| [http://books.google.com/books?id=jLtnAAAAMAAJ&dq=A+Pocket+History+of+Ireland&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=8OdMS7nFFZG2lAeko4CODQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CB8Q6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=&f=false MacManus, Seamus, The Story of the Irish Race], The New York Irish Publishing Co., 1921
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| == Emigration from Ireland == | | == Emigration from Ireland == |