Galway Bay

Irish emigration

During the early 1800s, Ireland’s population grew rapidly, but its economy, which relied entirely on agriculture, declined. Many people cultivated land but had to pay high rents to the landlords while others lived on small farms that produced little income. Most of the Irish people had not a great choice for their food and depended mainly on potatoes. But from 1845 to 1847 Ireland’s potato crop failed because of a plant disease, and about 750.00 persons died of starvation or disease, while hundreds of thousands more left the country and went to the United States which in those times, represented the Promised Land for the poor. So a great movement of emigration began and it went on up to 1921 when Ireland gained its independence, the Germans and the Japanese built new industries, and the Irish improved farming conditions. In America the immigrants were the people at the bottom of the social ladder: those millions, who had arrived without any money and often illiterate on the crowded immigrant ships, worked in the worst-paid jobs and lived in the worst places. The Irish were the first large group of non-protestant immigrants, and they were desperately poor. In the cities where they went by the thousands, they were always looked upon with suspicion and hostility. But they worked hard and gave their contribution to the growth of their new country.