The following are excepts describing conditions in Ireland in the 1830 and 1840’s from Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America, Miller and Wagner, Elliott & Clark Publishing, Washington D.C., 1994. The publishing rights to Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America are now owned by Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado. Any printing or reproduction of the material in this link must be obtained in writing from Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado.

“In the Irish or Gaelic language, the act of leaving Ireland was most often described by the word ‘deorai’. Deorai translates into English not as ‘emigration’, but as ‘exile’. Similarly, when Irish poets and peasants describe the act of emigration, they said ‘Dob éigean dom imeacht fo Meirice’ meaning ‘I had to go to America’, or, ‘Going to America was a necessity for me.’ ” Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America, Miller and Wagner, Elliott & Clark Publishing, Washington D.C., 1994, p. 17. The publishing rights to Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America are now owned by Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado. Any printing or reproduction of the material in this link must be obtained in writing from Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado.

Both parents and the Church enforced a segregation of the genders, enforcing this in schools, churches, social clubs, and even in public places. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, women were important economically, earning money to pay the rent by working on neighboring farms, spinning wool, or working in other small cottage (small scale work usually done in homes) industries. However, by the middle of the century the agricultural economy was changing to livestock raising. This meant that opportunities to work on farms were greatly reduced. Irish parents still expected their daughters to work long hours on their own farms or shops, but for little or no wages. In the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth century most Irish farmers subdivided their land, if they had any, to provide farms for their sons, enabling the sons to marry and raise families of their own. Men could marry at a young age and it was possible for a woman to escape her parents home at a relatively young age. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the plots of land had become so small through division that they could barely provide nourishment for a family. Also, British demand for livestock had increased so much that land was kept by parents for grazing instead of given to sons. Now a son got a farm through his parents will after they died. Usually they willed it to the first born son, who now was middle aged before he could begin a family of his own. The Irish women found that the age of the men who could marry was becoming older and older. This became progressively worse so that by 1920 the average age of men marrying became 36 years and the average age of women was 26 years. Not only didn’t the women inherit the land if they had a brothers, but they had to marry whom their parents chose for them and they had to provide a dowry of land, money, or cattle to be eligible for marriage. Under the dowry system, parents chose their daughter’s husband on the basis of economic considerations, not “silly” romantic ideas. Also, most farmers lacked the resources for dowries for more than one daughter, which consigned the rest to become a spinster. By 1920 one fourth of Irish women aged 45 to 54 had never been married. Their only escape was to America, where after a number of years they could earn their own dowry and marry the person of their own choosing. Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America, Miller and Wagner, Elliott & Clark Publishing, Washington D.C., 1994, p. 71-74. The publishing rights to Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America are now owned by Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado. Any printing or reproduction of the material in this link must be obtained in writing from Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado.

My Dear Cousin

I am sorry that the priest put such a hard penance on you. You will have to come to the country where there’s love and liberty. It agrees very well with me. You would not think I have any beaux, but I have a good many. I got half a dozen now. I have become quite a Yankee, and if I was at home the boys would all be around me. I believe I have got no more to say.

From your affectionate friend,

Mary Brown

Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America, Miller and Wagner, Elliott & Clark Publishing, Washington D.C., 1994, p. 74. The publishing rights to Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America are now owned by Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado. Any printing or reproduction of the material in this link must be obtained in writing from Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado.

July 24, 1870 Dear Brother, I have sorry news for you. On Thursday morning last, Ann, my eldest child, left here unknown to he mother and all, took all the money she could, leaving not the price of a loaf in the house, and started by steamer for Philadelphia. Perhaps you know some person in Philadelphia who could find her out? She is a smart, good girl ---What ever put this in her head? She is twenty-two years old, fair hair, clean skin, dark brown eyes, not tall. I know she is sorry for what she done. Please oblige me a letter as we are in great trouble.

I am your affectionate brother,

A. Sproule

Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America, Miller and Wagner, Elliott & Clark Publishing, Washington D.C., 1994, p. 70. The publishing rights to Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America are now owned by Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado. Any printing or reproduction of the material in this link must be obtained in writing from Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado.

“America is the promised land - with gold and silver (lying in the ditches), and nothing to do but gather it up.” An Irish Immigrant before he landed, Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America, Miller and Wagner, Elliott & Clark Publishing, Washington D.C., 1994, p. 13. The publishing rights to Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America are now owned by Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado. Any printing or reproduction of the material in this link must be obtained in writing from Robert Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado.

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