Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

and 300,000 ended up in Great Britain, many in the Liverpool area (McMahon 2021, 4-5). Most historians accept that at least 450,000 Irish migrated to British North America before the Famine, and in so doing created a settlement grid, kinship networks, and migration chains that pre-dated the catastrophe of the Great Famine (McGowan, 2023). UCC (University College Cork) statistics are compatible with these figures: 800,000- 1,000,000 Irish emigrants to North America 1815-45, with roughly half settling in Canada and half in the US https://www.ucc.ie/en/emigre/history/ ). McGowan (2023) and McMahon (2021) combined figures document 750,000 Irish emigrants arriving in British North America (BNA) by 1855, of which many moved quickly to the USA, making it reasonable to consider that three quarters of all Irish emigrants to North America prior to 1856 ended up in the USA and just one quarter in BNA, as has been suggested by William Smyth (Smyth 2012, 11): About a million people had left the country in the two decades between 1821 and 1841. This annual level of emigration continued up to 1845-46; then as famine intensified, the exodus from Ireland became an unstoppable flood. Close on a million desperate Irish people emigrated to overseas countries between 1846 and March 1851 with close on a further half million leaving Ireland by the end of 1852. In addition, between a quarter and one-third of a million famine-stricken people ended up in the slums of Liverpool, Glasgow, London, and other British cities. By 1891, four out of ten of the total Irish-born population were then living abroad. For my research, I reviewed emigrant sailing ship voyages between 1815 and 1856 from the Port of Cork to the British North American ports of Quebec, Halifax Nova Scotia and St John, New Brunswick, and from the Port of Cork to the US ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans. These years were chosen because as stated above, Cork emigration was minor during and directly after the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) and decreased significantly after the 1815-56 period. The eight named ports were the main ports of disembarkation in North America during that period. SOURCES Cork immigrant ship departures and destinations were extracted from Cove/Queenstown Shipping Intelligence/News reports found in the Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, Cork Constitution, and the Cork Examiner as available between 1823 and 1856 . These records are far from complete such that, during some long periods, ship arrivals and departures were so out of balance that one might worry as to whether space was left in the Harbour. Furthermore, ship arrivals from Cork at North American ports frequently lacked documentation of their departure from Cork. British North American ship arrivals from Cork were extracted from The Ships List. This is an online compilation of ship arrivals at Quebec 1817-47, Halifax, Nova Scotia 1815-38 and St John, New Brunswick 1815-38 as derived from regional newspapers. The Ships List https://www.theshipslist.com/ data for arrivals at Quebec lacked records for 1843-45. Quebec ship arrivals for 1847 are complemented by the book 1847 Grosse Île (Charbonneau & Sévigny 1997). Ship arrivals at US ports from Cork were extracted from online microfilm roll review of Boston Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists 1820-91 (M277), New York Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M237), Philadelphia Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M245), Baltimore