Compelling Reasons Why The Irish Emigrated

Political Culture of Persecution

 * Austere taxation and tithes policies
 * Continual doctrine of ‘Conquer and divide’ policies from medieval times throughout the centuries seized land and evicted native Irish Catholics from their own lands
 * Cruel landlords (not all)
 * Sponsorship of land price increases, allowed to unbearable levels; tossed hoards of already poor families, ‘out onto the street’
 * Disallowance of land ownership for all Catholics
 * ‘Rent-racking’ on land rentals on Catholic farmers forced many to leave, or out onto the streets

Economic

 * British government backed England’s grain exportations—but not Ireland’s; farmers left
 * Grains out of Ireland, were exported to England, while Irish were dying from the famine
 * New farming techniques increased output, decreasing the need for agricultural laborers
 * Manufacturing industries sprang up, causing less emphasis in farming

Social
A culture of religious persecution by the local Protestant-led and British Crown government was manifest in—


 * distrust of Catholics’ loyalty to the Crown

Harsh Penal laws from 1695, stripped all Catholics of their rights to—


 * vote
 * practice law
 * enter a profession
 * hold public office
 * receive an education
 * practice their own religion outside of the Protestant faith
 * serve as officers in British armed forces
 * teach in, or enroll in colleges
 * defend themselves with weapons
 * be employed or an employer in a trade or in commerce
 * build a church or live within 5 miles of the civil parish church
 * own a horse of greater value than five pounds
 * purchase nor lease land
 * hold a life annuity
 * buy or receive a gift of land from a Protestant
 * inherit land or moveables from a Protestant
 * rent any land that was worth more than thirty shillings a year
 * reap from his land any profit exceeding a third of the rent
 * be a guardian to a child
 * leave infant children under Catholic guardianship
 * accept a mortgage on land in security for a loan
 * attend Catholic worship
 * choose between attendance in a Catholic, or a Protestant place of worship
 * educate his child
 * be instructed by a local Catholic teacher nor be educated abroad

Crop Failures

 * Devastating crop failures—especially from 1846 to 1851 killed nearly a million people
 * British government’s lack of food aid to Ireland during The Great Famine forced nearly half the surviving population to leave Ireland
 * Famine brought abject poverty, severe malnutrition inducing poor health, and affected (even to some--death) to 3-4 million Irish