The Role Of Irish Catholics In The Late 19th Century

The Irish were the largest group of immigrants to settle in Scotland and from the early 1800s tended to be mostly on a temporary cyclical basis that peaked during agricultural harvest time. However in the wake of the 1845 Irish Potato Famine – An Gorta Mór, there ensued a mass exodus of Irish fleeing their native land to seek a new life in countries all over the world. The census of 1841 revealed that the Irish born population of Scotland stood at 4.8% a figure that in the following ten years had increased to 7.2% compared to that of England and Wales with 2.9%. Thus in the period between 1841 an 1851 the Irish population of Scotland had increased by 90% and saw large concentrations of Irish immigrants settling in industrial towns of the west of Scotland, with Glasgow being the final
Akenson argued that all immigrants from Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant, possessed roughly the same occupational an economic profiles. His view was that the poorest immigrants headed for Britain while those with more resources ventured to destinations in America, Canada and even Australia. Whatever their economic status Akenson contended that immigrant populations epitomized ‘clean laboratories’ to test assertions in respect of the differing impact religion played in occupational and economic achievement.

Irish Catholics in the main settled where employment was most available and sought after and where the key criteria required physical strength; hence the reason many were employed in dock work, in coal mining, and all kinds of labouring jobs. The 1851 census indicates that roughly between 50% and 75% of all dock-labourers