During this period the people of Ireland were confronted with several political and economic problems. Many Irish people emigrated to America to escape these hardships.

For the Irish many of their problems began in the 1180's when the King of England decided that his nation needed more land.   The small geographic land area of England and the practice of "primogeniture" necessitated this move.  This term meant that all family land inheritances went to the eldest son.  As a result many of the younger sons became priests, military officers or tried to buy acreage in England.  In an attempt to solve this problem, the Pope gave Ireland to England so there was more land for the British to settle (at this point in history England was still a Catholic nation).  It wouldn't be until later that the British actually began to live there.

In the1600s, the English attempted to establish their presence by beginning a policy of forced assimilation.  In enforcing this policy they tried to eliminate the use of Gaelic (the Irish language) and eradicate the Catholic religion.  Before the English introduced their thoughts and beliefs on male supremacy to Ireland, women and men had enjoyed social and political equality.
 

Irish men and women bravely fought the British to protect their land.  However, it wasn't enough to stop them.  At this point Irish tenant farmers found themselves faced with eviction for non payment of rent.
	The tenant's English landlords continuously raised their rent until families could no longer pay their due, and were evicted.  This gave the landlords larger tracts of land to raise cattle or sheep for exportation to England.  These tenant evictions were another cause of emigration from Ireland.  The British ruined their houses by either tearing down the roof or by burning them to the ground.

In the foreground of this photo you can see a house missing it's thatched roof. This was the size of a common farmhouse during the 1840's in Ireland. It was probably something of this nature that the families of New Ireland may have left behind to come to America.

Those who weren't as fortunate to find land on the coastline became "tinkers".  Tinkers is a term given to those who wandered around looking for work or food.  They lived in man made shelters along the roadside and asked people for food in return for performing small tasks.  This was similar to the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930's.  In the book The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, portrayed the same types of occurrence.

The British, now having taken the predominance of land, exported cattle to England to serve as a source of food.  Therefore the people of Ireland, who used to eat chickens and beef with spices, now were forced to become dependent on potatoes to survive.  To this day many people believe it was the Irish that developed the growth of the potato.  However this in not true, the potato was brought to Ireland in the 1500s by ships returning from South America where the potato originated.  It turned out that the potato was a perfect crop for the Irish of that time.  It grew well in the damp Irish climate, and did not need the best of soil to grow in.  The Irish wound up depending on it for survival because they had to sell their cattle and grains to the English overlords to pay their rent.  If they chose to use either of these two crops they would then not have sufficient funds to keep from being evicted.  This meant that typically the families of Ireland would eat potatoes morning, noon and night for survival.  In 1845 a terrible infestation of the potato crop took place in Ireland.  The story is still told to this day of a dark grey fog descending upon Ireland.  When the farmers got up the next morning and went to their potato fields to dig up their crop they found the "spuds" had turned black and were of a soft mushy like texture.  This would last for another 5 years.  Many Irish began to believe that it was a curse or punishment put upon them by God.

The potato famine of 1848 was the most devastating Irish famine in history.  Many of the people were forced to resort to a desperate practice known as bleeding.  Bleeding was draining some of a cow's blood and mixing it with rotten potatoes and cabbage to make a soup.  Others would peal bark from trees and boil it or those near the coast would take seaweed and do the same.  Desperate measures such as this were taken to try to help families combat the famine and keep their strength up.   There are accounts of people found dead in their homes with their stomachs bloated and tongues green from finally resorting to eating grass in attempt to ward off starvation.   News of the famine made some of the English sympathetic to the plight of the Irish.  Workhouses were created to house and feed those that were unable to provide for themselves. Unfortunately the British as part of their Poor Laws made one of the conditions for entering the workhouse that you must give up all property that you owned.  This was another way of getting the land from the Irish citizenry. There were also no guarantees that your family would be placed together in the same workhouse. They were really nothing more than places to go to die. The following was written by the vice-guardians (British government inspectors) of the Ennistymon workhouse:

*There were collections of dirt and filth almost under every bed. On inspecting the laundry, we found the clothes, which had been washed and were in the process of drying, completely covered in vermin, and the persons and clothes of the paupers generally neglected.
 

The situation was tragic enough that many of those suffering sent their children to America.  Other times the male head of a household would leave, get employment in the nation of emigration, save his earnings and then send for the rest of the family.  A passage to America during this time was approximately $10.00.

It is estimated one in four people died during this famine. The high mortality rate caused parishes to hold mass funerals.  Putting food on the table was a constant struggle and funeral bills were near to impossible to pay.  For this reason, each church had a "community coffin".  When there was a death in the community the people would use the coffin for the wake and the funeral.  At the grave site, a trap door would be opened and the corpse would fall into the grave.  The coffin would then be returned to be used for the next individual that died in that area.
 

"Coffin Ships" were used by many Irish families for their passage to America.  Coffin ships were the cheapest way to travel to Horatio Alger's "land of opportunity", but were often times fatal to many passengers.  Due to the lack of room on these ships, disease spread quickly and easily, often causing the deaths of over half of the passengers.  The death toll was so high that you could line gravestones across the Atlantic Ocean from one shore to the other. In some instances, sharks followed these coffin ships waiting for the bodies of the newly deceased.  Families of the emigrants held "American wakes", which were both celebrations and mournings.  These wakes were happy occasions because some were able to leave their life of hardship behind, but in return they would rarely see their family members again.

Below you will find a diary entry from a passenger aboard one of the coffin ships leaving Ireland and the Great Famine behind. If you would like to see the diary in it's entirety refer to this website  (Link to this site is broken)

Tuesday, 1 June

After breakfast, the mate invited me to see the depot of provisions. I accordingly followed him, descending by a ladder into an apartment partitioned off from the hold, and dividing it from the cabin.

By the light from the lantern I perceived a number of sacks, which were filled with oatmeal and biscuit. The mate having proceeded to prepare the passengers' rations for distribution, I sat down upon one of the sacks, from beneath which suddenly issued a groan. I jumped up, quite at a loss to account for the strange sound and looked at the mate in order to discover what he thought of it. He seemed somewhat surprised but in a moment removed two or three sacks and lo! there was a man crouched up in a corner. As he had not seen him before, the mate at once concluded that he was a 'stowaway', so giving him a shake to make him stand upright, he ordered him to mount the ladder, bestowing a kick upon the poor wretch to accelerate his tardy ascent.

The captain was summoned from below and a council immediately held for the trial of the prisoner, who confessed that, not having enough of money to pay for his passage, he bribed the watchman employed to prevent the possibility of such an occurrence. He had been concealed for three days but at night made his way into the hold, through a breach in the partition; His presence was therefore known to some of the passengers. He had no clothes but the rags he wore nor had he any provisions. To decide what was to be done with him was now the consideration, but the captain hastily terminated the deliberation by swearing that he should be thrown overboard. The wretched creature was quite discomfited by the captain's wrath and earnestly begged for forgiveness. It was eventually settled that he should be landed upon the first island at which we should touch, with which

decision he appeared to be quite satisfied. He said that he was willing to work for his support but the captain swore determinedly that he should not taste one pound of the ship's provision. He was therefore left to the tender mercies of his fellow passengers.

In consequence of this discovery, there was a general muster in the afternoon, affording me an opportunity of seeing all the emigrants - and a more motley crowd I never beheld; of all ages, from the infant to the feeble grandsire and withered crone.

While they were on deck, the hold was searched, but without any further discovery, no one having been found below but a boy who was unable to leave his berth from debility. Many of them appeared to me to be quite unfit to undergo the hardship of a long voyage, but they were inspected and passed by a doctor, although the captain protested against taking some of them. One old man was so infirm that he seemed to me to be in the last stage of consumption.

The next matter to be accomplished was to regulate the allowance of provisions to which each family was entitled, one pound of meal or of bread being allowed for each adult, half a pound for each individual under fourteen years of age, and one third of a pound for each child under seven years. Thus, although there were 110 souls, great and small, they counted as 84 adults. That was, therefore, the number of pounds to be issued daily. On coming on board, provisions for a week were distributed but as they wasted them most improvidently, they had to be served again today. The mate consequently determined to give out the day's rations every morning.
 

* Percival, John, The Great Famine Ireland's Potato Famine 1845-1851. Copyright 1995. p. 164