Irish Migration to the West Coast, 1864-1900 - New Zealand Journal ...

LYNDON FRASER
Coast, and their preponderance strongly indicates the Australian antecedents of
the inflow. This is particularly evident in the case of counties Clare and Tipperary,
which dominated Victoria's intake and contributed the largest share of
newcomers in absolute numbers and relative to their respective populations
(see Table 2). An important secondary concentration developed around the highly
urbanized north-east Ulster counties of Antrim, Down and Londonderry, an
area that contained Protestant majorities and a rapidly expanding industrial
sector. 35 Altogether emigrants from Ulster comprised about one-quarter of the
inflow, while Connaught and several Leinster counties were under-represented
(see Table 3). This disparity is further accentuated by the fact that a majority of
those from the western province emanated from a single county — Galway —
with Dublin, Kilkenny, King's and Meath accounting for three-fifths of all
Leinster-born migrants. Along the western seaboard, counties Kerry and Donegal
established close associations with Westland during the early stages of
colonization and may have contributed a number of bilingual Irish-speakers.
Table 2: Rankings of Irish Counties of Origin, 1864-1900
Relative Origins of Percentage Valuation Proportion Proportion Proportion of Proportion
intensity of West Coast living in of lands of persons of persons families in third- of Iiish-
Irish Irish-born towns per person, in in industrial and fourth-class speaking
emigration population, (from 1891 (from commercial occup- housing, 1891 inhabitants,
to West in absolute highest to highest to occup- ations (from highest to 1891 (fi
Coast, numbers. lowest) lowest ations. 1891 (from lowest) highest
per county 1864-1900 (from highest to lowest)
population highest to lowest)
in 1861
lowest)
COUNTY
Clare 1 2 (178) 24 25 27 26 14 5
Tipperary 2 1 (188) 10 8 13 19 25 12
Limerick 3 5 (103) 8 12 8 10 11 9
Kerry 4 6 (81) 21 30 18 25 4 3
Londonderry 5 9 (66) 6 23 7 5 14 20
Kings 6 15 (30) 14 9 14 16 18 23
Kilkenny 7 12 (41) 17 5 15 17 27 13
Antrim 8 4 (117) 2 18 2 1 32 27
Galway 9 7 (80) 20 27 21 29 5 1
Donegal 10 9 (66) 31 31 24 12 2 6
Waterford 11 14 (34) 7 15 3 8 27 4
Leitrim 12 19 (26) 32 29 32 31 14 11
Cork 13 3 (133) 5 21 5 11 23 7
Meath 14 20 (24) 24 1 20 14 3 19
Down 15 11 (64) 4 14 6 2 31 28
Monaghan 16 18 (27) 28 17 26 23 17 16
Queens 17 22 (17) 18 7 19 20 19 28
Wicklow 18 23 (16) 12 4 9 18 29 28
Cavan 19 17 (28) 31 26 29 27 13 17
Fermanagh 20 21 (19) 25 16 23 22 22 21
Carlow 21 31 (10) 15 6 16 15 30 28
Dublin 22 8 (68) 1 10 1 4 6 22
Westmeath 23 25 (15) 16 2 25 21 21 23
Armagh 24 15 (30) 9 19 11 3 24 18
Tyrone 25 13 (37) 22 24 22 7 10 14
Longford 26 29 (11) 26 20 30 24 20 23
Kildare 27 27 (13) 13 3 12 9 12 23
Louth 28 29 (ID 3 13 4 6 9 15
Roscommon 29 23 (16) 27 22 31 30 8 10
Wexford 30 27 (13) 11 11 10 13 26 28
Sligo 31 31 (10) 19 28 17 28 7 8
Mayo 32 25 (15) 29 32 28 32 1 2
1. Table 2 is modelled on Kerby Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America, New York,
1985, Table 7, p.578.
2. Sources: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages; Probate Files, CH 171, National Archives, Christchurch; Passenger
Lists, IM-CH 4 and IM-15, National Archives, Wellington; W.E. Vaughan and A.H. Fitzpatrick, eds, Irish Historical
Statistics: Population 1821-1971, Dublin, 1971, pp.261-353; Miller, Emigrants and Exiles, Table 10, p.580.
3. The figures displayed in brackets record the numbers of West Coast Irish from each county (N=1587).
4. The relative intensity of emigration (column 1) is indicated by dividing the number of emigrants by the county population
in 1861.