Outline

Over 8 million Irish people emigrated between 1800 and 2000.
President Mary Robinson estimated about 70 million persons all over the world of at least partial Irish descent.
The US and Britain were the most favoured destinations.
Ireland is unique among European nations in that as many millions of Irish women emigrated as did Irish men; in fact, at times more women than men emigrated.
The majority of the Irish women who emigrated were single women.

... we know that of the 1,357,831 who left between 1885 and 1920, 684,159 were female; of these, 89% were single and most were under the age of 24. [Hasia] Diner remarks that this constituted a mass female movement without parallel in the history of European emigration and a 'defeminization' of the Irish countryside.
Ann Rossiter, 'Aspects of Irish women's emigration experience' in Sean Hutton & P. Stewart (eds.), Ireland's histories, London, 1991, p.225.

Before the Famine, about two thirds of those who emigrated were male and probably most of the females who accompanied them at that time were wives and children travelling in family groups. More reliable records, available towards the end of the nineteenth century, show how the proportion of females leaving Ireland had grown to equal - and at times to surpass - that of males.

Years	Males (Annual average)	Females (Annual average)	Total (Annual average)	Females per 1,000 males
1871-1881	24,958	25,314	50,172	1,010
1881-1891	29,257	30,476	59,733	1,042
1891-1901	20,315	19,327	39,642	951
1901-1911	11,764	14,390	26,154	1,223
1911-1926	13,934	13,068	27,002	938
1926-1936	7,255	9,420	16,675	1,298
1936-1946	11,258	7,453	18,711	662
1946-1951	10,309	14,075	24,384	1,365
1951-1961	21,786	19,091	40,877	876
1961-1971	6,236	7,215	13,451	1,157

From Commission on emigration and other population problems 1948-54, Stationery Office Dublin 1954. Quoted in Pauric Travers, 'Irish female emigration 1922-71' in Patrick O'Sullivan (ed), Irish women and Irish migration, London, 1995, p.148.

Questions

Over __ million Irish people emigrated between ____ and _____. President Mary Robinson estimated over ___ million persons all over the world of at least ____ Irish _____.
In what way is Irish emigration unique among European nations?
What are the benefits and what are the shortcomings as historical evidence of the statistical table quoted above ?

Activities

Copy the emigration statistics into a spreadsheet and convert to graph form in consultation with your mathematics teacher.
Using the statistical table quoted above, work out the total numbers of males and females who emigrated and the total average proportion of females per males who emigrated.
Discuss possible reasons for any one obvious trend in the statistics.

contents index