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Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (Oxford Paperbacks)

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Many of us tracing our Irish ancestry will never really know our forebears - we may learn their names and the dates and places of their births and deaths - but we will never know who they really were. It is to sources such as this book that we must turn to flesh out the picture of the Irish emigrant and the forces that drove them from their homes - economic, social, cultural, and psychological, as well as their reactions to and rationalizations of those forces. We must then apply this information on the Irish emigrant milieu to the framework of knowledge of our specific forebears. The book has given me a plausible explanation as to why my County Mayo ancestors did not emigrate until the 1880's while so many from other parts of Ireland came over much sooner. Dr. Miller is quite detailed in his discussion of the differences in the adherence to traditional Irish culture and the Irish language that existed between the inhabitants of western Ireland and the remainder of the island. A must-read for any geneaologist seeking their Irish roots!

Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America is a well documented history of the emigration of more than seven million Irish people who left Eire for North America in five time periods from pre-Revolutionary days to 1921. Author Kerby Miller's research included more than 750 sources in both public and privately held collections in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Canada, 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia as well as more than 5,000 emigrants' letters, memoirs, poems, songs and folklore.

Miller begins and ends the book with recollections of Irish oral tradition to help understand the essence of the Irish emigration experience. He refers to Irish poems, songs and ballads from as early as the 11th century to explain an almost original sin-like belief that all Irish are exiles whether they emigrated or not. He explains how the Irish wake became a metaphor for the departure of the emigrants. In the last moments before Maura O'Sullivan left her mother's cottage to begin her journey to America, the old women of the village gathered `round to sing a mournful goodbye that just as easily could have been a funeral dirge: "Oh, musha, Maura, how shall I live after you when the long winter's night will be here and you not coming to the door nor your laughter to be heard!"

By the 1830s, less than 10,000 families literally owned Ireland, with several hundred of the wealthiest proprietors and large tenants monopolizing the bulk of the land. The Irish Diaspora flowed from an extreme concentration of property and power in an agrarian, export-based economy where too many people competed for too few jobs. In 1841, 80 percent of the more than 8.1 million Irish lived in communities of less than 20 houses. Most people were forced to lead lives of impoverished subsistence agriculture, poorly paid urban common labor or to emigrate.

Miller says Irish country people were "preliterate;" that is, they were illiterate while preserving a rich oral tradition and robust cultural heritage through their Gaelic language. Gaelic tradition had been sustained in Ireland by hereditary storytellers and poets who met in "courts of poetry" at farmhouses where established bards judged the compositions of their successors. Hundreds of thousands of Gaelic speakers emigrated to North America.

Music and dancing also played a prominent role in rural Irish culture from whence most emigrants came. Miller says visitors were often astonished that people so poor could exhibit such skill and spontaneous pleasure in song and dance. He quotes a traveling Englishman who observed, "We frog-blooded English dance as if the practice were not congenial to us, but here they moved as if dancing had been the business of their lives."

Prior to 1815, most Irish emigrants either were able to pay their passages or "emigrated for nothing" as indentured servants. After that, overseas demand for indentured servants practically disappeared while opportunities to earn livable wages in Ireland continued to deteriorate. A pattern of family chain migration developed that financed over half of all Irish migration after 1840.

In 1845, Ireland's population was about 8.5 million. Ten years later, after the worst of the Famine, it stood at 6 million. Many had died from starvation and disease, but most had emigrated to North America. Those who arrived in North America were temperamentally as well as economically less prepared for assimilation into their new lives abroad because of their strong peasant heritage. One Irish emigrant wrote, "Had I fallen from the clouds amongst this people, I could not feel more isolated, more bewildered." Another wrote, "We are a primitive people wandering wildly in a strange land ..."

Miller tells us at least 200,000 Irishmen served in the U.S. Civil War, the vast majority for the Union, which paid lucrative bounties to many recruits. He shares a letter from emigrant Thomas McManus to his family in Ireland in which Thomas assured them he wasn't forced to enlist, but "by `Gor' the bounty was very tempting and I enlisted the first day I came here." Thomas sent $350 of the $700 he received for joining up to help his family in Ireland. $700 was more than ten years' wages for an Irish laborer at the time.

Irish-Catholic immigrants brought their own factions, secret societies, sports and boisterous wakes to their neighborhoods and work sites in North America. Vicious battles over employment opportunities and territory were common among rival bands of workers from different parts of Ireland, as well as between the Irish and workers of other nationalities. The Irish were always sensitive to anti-Irish prejudice, symbolized by the "No Irish Need Apply" slogan, the source of which apparently was a song from England. Irish clannishness was often expressed in allegiance to strong-willed, often stridently Irish priests, to Irish street gangs, volunteer fire companies, political clubs and frequent mob actions against non-Irish competitors. The St. Patrick's Day observance was celebrated to extol Irish Catholic solidarity and build political strength.

This is not to say Irish Catholic immigrants were unified. On the contrary, Miller shows how they were deeply divided in several ways. Significant differences existed between Irish- and American-born generations, between different waves of emigrants in different stages of adaptation and affluence and between those who earned formal educational credentials and those who pursued trades and manual labor. Other factions arose between the English-speaking majority and the approximately half-million who still spoke Irish. Gender equality was also a prevalent issue between Irish men and women. In fact, Miller reports Irish-American women enjoyed significantly greater upward mobility and more successful adjustment to American society than did their male peers.

Kerby Miller's work is unquestionably a rich treasure of outstanding historical scholarship. It should occupy prime space on the shelf of anyone interested in emigration generally or the histories of the United States, Canada, Australia, England and any other country in which Irish emigrants have settled.

I was fortunate enough to have taken an Irish History class taught by Mr. Miller, and he is quite simply the pure embodiment of knowledge. From what I understand, this book is regarded as the definitive work on the subject, and I heartily agree. As an undergraduate student, initially only mildly interested in American/Irish relations, I read this book as an assignment; the subsequent three times, out of zeal and desire. Well written with an appeal not only to historians and Irish Americans, but to anyone who enjoys a nice thick read, I have passed my tattered copy out to many people, and all were happily satisfied. A brilliant tome, no matter your background.

As far as I'm concerned this is required reading for any Irish American who wants to know from whence she or he comes. I recognized many traits in my own family that had their origins in the Ireland described by Mr. Miller and we've been here for five generations. For anyone who wants to get by the stereotypes of St. Patrick's Day and Green Beer you'll be well rewarded. Jim Conbo

An excellent book covering the migration out of Ireland. Miller looks at the different time periods and at the different kinds of immigration, and traces the idea of emigration as "exile." Great background materials are included, as well as good statistical appendices and notes.

I am researching the Ireland of my Great-Great Grandfather. He and his family left Ireland in 1847. He identified his occupation as a laborer and his family members as servants. Kerby Miller has done a great job of explanning conditions in Ireland right down to the lowest social level.

This is a very in-depth research of the topic as stated in the title. If you are interested in Irish history this book is quite informative and interesting. However, it is not lite reading because of the author's detailed efforts to convey to the reader the many reasons why Ireland and the Irish people came to be such a distinctive population. These are reasons that cannot easily be summed up in a few short pages, but I do think the author could have done a better job in summarizing his information. Refreshingly, the author only lets his personal biases creep into the book occasionally. Most disappointing is that my paperback copy of this book was marred by an imperfect printing and many of the words on the left side of opposing pages were hardly readable. It became quite frustrating to have to guess at some of them.

To anyone who is doing research, this is a good read.

I'm not Irish and I didn't have to read this book as part of a course. I read the book because I'm interesed in U.S. immigration, and find it necessary to understand refugee movements past and present. I'm also concerned about the 'problems'in Northern Ireland.

This book is a hard slog but a fairly good read. I read 10-15 pages at lunch every day and finally got through it. It's a very informative book, and quite illuminating.

The British undoubtedly caused many of the problems the Irish experienced in the past and continue to experience today. However, the Irish have had a hard time letting go of the past. What is to be done? One cannot make the past different, only the present. Although one might sympathize with the Catholic Irish, and even the IRA, the future must be different. Protestants are not going back to England or Scotland. In fact, they can no more return than those of British or Scotish descent living in North Carolina can go back to the U.K.

Read this book to better understand the dilemmna in Northern Ireland, and the possible ways peace may be found.

I was very surprised when I found my package on my doorstep. I did not realize that it would get here so quickly. Shipping was lightening fast, and the book was in excellent condition. No markings or torn pages or anything of that nature. I will definitely order from this seller again.

This book was an excellent overview as to why Ireland's history was what is was. It enlightened me so much as to the "backward" mindset of the traditional Gaelic culture that resisted improvements, frowned on individual success and utilized a linguistic view of the world that placed action on everyone else instead of the individual responsible. Later, this mindset would mire them in squalor until the Famine finally forced their hand and drove them out. The same mindset blamed everything on the English and looked to foreign saviors to make things right. The Irish made it in the USA where they were forced to stop complaining about the British and forced to make improvements through education, hard work and political expediency. Unfortunately, political correctness and well intentioned but ineffectual government programs are preventing the new immigrants and descendants of older ones from reaching the pinnacle of success that any race can achieve. The economic pie can grow and feed everyone and is not a static finite quantity. Irish experiences have proven that and I am glad to have read this tome.