Timeline of Irish Emigration¹

1600s - 90,000 fled persecution and went to Europe (France, Spain, Austria)-many who fled were in the military

1607 - Flight of the Earls - the King of England began to move Irish Catholic Landowners out of Ulster, replacing them with Protestant landlords.  The Earls fled to Spain and France but weren't accepted, so they went to Rome.  The land was then populated by Scots.

1611-1870 - 50,000 Irish criminals deported to penal colonies 

1641 Irish Rebellion - an uprising by dispossessed Catholics resulting in Oliver Cromwell's troops arriving

1649 - Cromwell transported political prisoners & Irish peasants to Barbados and Jamaica, Virginia & Maryland

1650s-transported to West Indies

1660s-approximately 25,000 transported to Caribbean and North American colonies

1680s-Irish Quakers and Protestant Dissengers left Ireland

1692-Treaty of Limerick - loss of property and status among old Irish elite

end 1600s to 1740 - 1,000 Irish Catholics joined Irish regiments in France

1717-1718 - Great Migration - primarily from County Londonderry due to drought, rack-renting, and a failing linen industry.  Some were indentured servants, but most paid their own way.

1725-1729 - drought and rack-renting in Ulster - went to southeastern Pennsylvania

1740-1741-Famine - Ulstermen went to Great Appalachian Valley, Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, then to Carolinas

1754-1755-drought - to North Carolina

1771-1775-Ulster-Scot Presbyterians fled rack-renting & evictions by the Marquis of Donegal in Cty Antrim

1776-Emigrants from counties Wexford & Waterford went to Newfoundland for work in the cod fisheries, initially seasonally then permanently.  3,000-5,000 left annually and the population of St. John's, Newfoundland was predominantly Irish born by 1784.

1783-1800 - Almost 75,000 arrived in Delaware Valley, the majority from Ulster.

By 1790, 447,000 Irish immigrants lived in the U.S., two-thirds from Ulster.

After 1791, Irish soldiers received incentives to settle in Australia.  Also, penal transportation from Ireland to Australia.  Records such as transportation registers, prisoner petititions and convict reference files can be found in the National Arcives of Ireland's Chief Secretary's Office.  

1801 - More than 1 million fled to south and west of the U.S., mostly Catholic and unskilled.

1815-1816-20,000, mostly from Ulster.  Canadian government began granting land to settlers and soldiers.  American land agents offered indentures to attract young people to land in the U.S.  Equal amounts of  men and women emigrated.

By 1832 - passage to America decreased as trade between America  and Liverpool increased.  The Irish migrated to Britain.

1840s - These counties lost 1/3 - 1/4 of their populations: Roscommon, Mayo, Monaghan, Sligo, Longford, Cavan, Leitrim, Laois, Galway, Fermanagh and Kilkenny.

1841-1851 - The Great Famine - 1,500,000 migrated to the U.S., 340,000 to British North Aerican, 300,000 to Great Britain abd 70,000 to Australia.

1851-250,000 emigrated

1850-1893 - Leinster & Connacht emigrants went to the U.S., Ulstermen to Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; Munster to New Zealand and the U.S.

1921-1928 - 30,000 annually

1929 - 14,000 annually to Great Britain

1939-1945 - 200,000 relocated to England

1951-1956 - 176,000 to Great Britain, 20,000 to U.S. and Canada

1981-1986 - 72,000 emigrated due to unemployment, many for London and many ages 25-29 years old

1989 - 44,000 left due to unemployment

2008-2014 - 400,000 emigrated due to financial crisis, mostly skilled & professional individuals going to Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

1 "Timeline of Irish Emigration" by Kathleen O'Malley Strickland The Septs Vol 36 No 3 July 2015 pgs 94-97.