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Irish Diaspora Museum - Thematic Displays Exiles and Political Emigrés
Sub Themes: Rebels and Convicts. Visitor Goal: Visitors understand the role that politics, rebellion and other extenuating circumstances have contributed to the creation of the diaspora. Focus Personalities: Thomas Addis Emmet, Eliza Frazer, Thomas Francis Meagher. Content: The story of those who were forced into exile on account of politics or as a direct result of government policy. Cromwell and the Caribbean: In the wake of Cromwell's victory over the Confederate Irish he set about achieving a pacification of Ireland. This involved land confiscations, transplantation and in some cases ‘slave hunts', the rounding up of young Irish men and women for use as slaves in the West Indies. By the 1660s there may have been as many as 20,000 Irish in the Caribbean, though some of these were there as indentured servants. Gradually the use of black slaves from Africa altered fundamentally the position of the Caribbean Irish. In time these two groups found themselves allied against their British rulers. Australia – Convicts and Orphans: The British government decided to establish a penal colony in New South Wales in 1786. British and Irish convicts began to be transported there soon afterwards. In the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion, hundreds of rebels were ‘banished' as punishment for their involvement. In this first fifty years 50,000 convicts were transported to Australia. The high proportion of Irish in this number contributed hugely to the shaping of the new colony. These patterns were repeated in the wake of the 1848 rebellion and of the Fenian Rising. A government scheme to provide wives for a colony short on women led to over 4,000 young orphan girls being given passage to Australia between 1848 and 1850. Recent Émigrés: Every period of political disturbance in Ireland has resulted in emigration. After the Irish War of Independence and Partition thousands of Protestant / Unionists left for Britain, Canada and other British colonies. Many felt that they had been driven out by political intimidation. In more recent times the Northern Troubles have led many from both communities to leave for the ex-British colonies and for the US. |
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