We Shall Never Speak of This Again: The Plight of the Irish in the 19th Century by James Dan Casey

Author:James Dan Casey [Casey, James Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781737571612
Publisher: James Dan Casey
Published: 2021-09-08T05:00:00+00:00

DEPRESSION AND EMIGRATION

From the early part of the century up to the Famine, between 800,000 to 1,000,000 Irish emigrated to North America.19 This occurred in ebbs and flows based on the economic conditions in Ireland and America. Immigrants’ letters to Ireland would relay the status of the economy and available jobs. Emigration from Ireland would then generally curtail until news from America was better. It was a judgment call for the Irish to decide where they would be better off.

Ireland experienced times of economic depression during the century, which essentially forced many Irish to leave the country regardless of conditions in America. Ireland’s economy had experienced good times for several decades until the end of the Napoleonic War in about 1815. Napoleon of France had ventured out to expand on his territory between 1800 and 1815 and finally was defeated at Waterloo in Belgium. England was one of the allies that fought against France. The army’s demand for food and clothing and other goods kept the Irish economy strong.

After 1815, the demand fell and the Irish economy slipped into a deep depression.20 Agriculture was hard hit when the demand for food fell after the war. Between 1818 and 1833 grain prices fell 50%.21 Farmers saw their income drastically reduced and at the same time, their rent and expenses the same or greater. This pushed many farmers from a profitable farming operation literally into poverty. Evictions jumped drastically. Then came extreme cold and wet weather that ruined the potato and grain crops of 1816-1819. The crops of 1825-1829 saw both drought and inordinate rain damage. In the early 1830s, there was an outbreak of cholera in the poor classes, followed in 1832 by famine in parts of the country. At that point, the potato crop had failed eight out of ten years either regionally or nationally. Finally, in the winter of 1838 came ‘the night of the big wind.’ Inclement cold and snow was so bitter it actually froze livestock in the fields. As if that were not enough, the potato crop failed again three more times between 1841 and 1844. Emigration was a way out, to put the plight of Ireland behind them. In a sense, they were forced out, becoming exiles.22

To further exacerbate these events, England, also in economic strain, convinced their clothing manufacturers to ship a deluge of low-priced clothing to Ireland. This crippled the Irish wool and cotton manufacturers and struck a death blow to the industry. Irish manufacture of woolen cloth fell 85%, purposely destroyed by the English. England also decimated the linen industry in Ireland with cheap-priced goods. Losses in wool and linen struck a severe blow to Ireland’s economy. Motivated by lower prices, the Irish wore English clothes rather than clothes made in their own country.23

Another serious depression occurred between 1859 and 1864. Excessive rains were always a concern for agriculture in Ireland. On the Atlantic coast it might rain 250 days out of the year. In the western mountains, annual totals were as high as 60 to 70 inches.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.