Irish Migrants in Modern Britain, 1750-1922

Social History in Perspective

by Donald M. MacRaild

Ireland was unique among European countries in having a smaller population at the beginning of the 20th century than it had 100 years previously. This demographic decline was prompted by a series of social and economic factors, and emigration became so common that by 1891 forty percent of all the world's Irish-born were living outside Ireland. In this book, Donald MacRaild studies the Irish who settled in Britain and the often adverse reactions to them. From 1750, as Ireland became an increasingly full part of the United Kingdom, to the final parting of the ways in 1922 when the Irish Free State was formed, the often troubled relationship between Ireland and Britain meant that the sheer weight of Irish immigration created tensions far more severe than those generated by other immigrants.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published February 26, 1999

About the author

Donald MacRaild is Professor of British and Irish History having previously held chairs of History at the Northumbria University and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Prior to that, he held lectureships at the universities of Northumbria and Sunderland. MacRaild was educated at Liverpool Polytechnic where, in 1989, he took a first-class bachelor of arts. In 1993 he was awarded a PhD by Sheffield University, and three years later received a Certificate in Higher Education from the University of Sunderland.