Why leave Ireland in 1855?

[diplodicus]

My Murtha descendants lived through the famine in Dundalk, Co. Louth only to emigrate to England (Sunderland) in 1855. Since my other paternal ancestors also seemd to leave Dorset for the North-East at the same time, I was wondering why then?

The industrial revolution was well into its stride. The railway network was (amazingly) almost complete. The Corn Law riots were well in the past and the law itself was repealed in 1846. The economy was starting to boom as a result of increasing international trade due to the elimination of tariffs.

Why did they move?

[Elwyn Soutter]

I suspect your ancestors left for the same reasons that 2 million others did. To find work and to avoid starvation. In Co. LOUTH there wasn’t a lot of employment apart from subsistence level farming. Ireland has very few natural resources (no oil, coal, iron ore etc) and so did not benefit from the industrial revolution in the 1800s, the way Scotland and England did, which created thousands of comparatively well-paid new jobs in new industries (coal mining, steel making, ship building etc). So that was a big pull factor. There had been a huge population explosion going up from about 3 million people in 1750 to 8 million in 1830. There simply weren’t the jobs for all those people in Ireland, quite apart from the famine.

[GAJM1]

Plus Roman Catholics except for a select few were not allowed own land or make a decent living at the time in Ireland. We all hear about the big famine of 1845 but proverty was still wholesale well after this some would say well up to 1920's. There was no major industry in Ireland at the time also. If these people stayed they would most likely just be tenants given everything they make to the landlord. Tenants on the land their ancestors once ruled. At the time for most families only one child would stay in Ireland and the rest would emigrate there was only enough land/property to be handed down for one child (and this child then an adult would still only be a tenant)
Castlemcauliffe

[eadaoin]

Plus Roman Catholics except for a select few were not allowed own land or make a decent living at the time in Ireland.
We all hear about the big famine of 1845 but poverty was still wholesale well after this

Not quite true - Catholic Emancipation was in 1829 - after this. there was no particular law against Catholics ... however, many families were very poor because of the100+ years before that when the Penal Laws were in force.

eadaoin

[GAJM1]

Plus Roman Catholics except for a select few were not allowed own land or make a decent living at the time in Ireland.
We all hear about the big famine of 1845 but poverty was still wholesale well after this

Not quite true - Catholic Emancipation was in 1829 - after this. there was no particular law against Catholics ... however, many families were very poor because of the100+ years before that when the Penal Laws were in force.

eadaoin

Thanks for the correction Eadaoin even though you would be hard pressed to find many catholics owning land by the time of Griffiths Valuation in 1850s I believe it was much later 1870/1880's before any movement towards owning land came about for even a small minority of  Catholics the Wyndham Land Act (1903), which permitted tenants to purchase their farms on easy terms over 68 years was a major turning point

[aghadowey]

Most people in Ireland, irrespective of religion, were tenants (even families who were fairly well off and had farmed the same property for generations). First Irish Land Act (1870) was the start of tenants being able to purchase their farms.

[kingskerswell]

Hi,
   Looking at the Griffiths Revision Books it was the Land Purchase act of about 1882 which allowed the majority of tenants to purchase their farms on favourable terms if the landlord wanted to sell. However the Wyndham Act provided an incentive for the landlord to sell and a later act in 1925 made the landlords sell the land.

Regards

[diplodicus]

Thank you all for your really interesting input.