Different groups emigrated at different times - History tells us who and why

• Being “Irish” means being from the island of Ireland; with Celtic-Irish, Scots-Irish, and Anglo-Irish heritage; and different people with Protestant and Catholic religious beliefs (with some crossover).

Migration from Ireland to America – 18th Century

• 1717 Scottish settlers leave Ulster – poor harvest and rackrents
• 1740-1741 Potato Famine - all Ireland except Connacht
• 1760’s Agrarian violence – Ulster
• 1771-1775 Decline in Belfast linen trade – 10,000 left each year, 1/3 to 1/2 of them Ulster Protestants
• By 1790 1/6 of three million “U.S.” were of Irish birth or descent
• 280,000 were Ulster Protestants, 106,000 native Irish Catholics, 61,000 descendants of Irish Catholics from Ulster and English settlers from Ulster and the South

Migration from Ireland to America – 19th Century

• 1815 Immigration and trade resume
• 1815-1845 Many more Catholics & from South (could be double considering those who went to Canada first.)
• 1815-1825: 28,600
• 1826-1835: 118,4000
• 1836-1845: 289,700
• 1846-1855 1,442,000 (300,000 to Canada)
• 1856-1865 582,400
• 1866-1875 645,700
• 500,000 left Ireland every 10 years until WWI