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1837
Topographical Dictionary of Ireland: 'Kilmacrehy containing 3343 inhabitants... Part of the Spanish Armada was, in 1588, wrecked on the shore. On the most elevated point of these stupendous cliffs an ornamental building in the castellated style is now being erected by Cornelius O'Brien. Esq., for the accommodation of visiters The arable land is generally manured with seaweed and sand, and the state of agriculture is generally improving.'
Most of the population spoke both Gaelic and English. In 1841, 63% of Clare people could neither read nor write.
1840
William Green, my great grandfather, born in Clare. No information can be found about his birth or his parents; William Green (born c. 1810) and Bridget Nagle.
1845 - 48
The Great Famine: The failure of the potato crop, due to a fungus, brought hardship to all of Ireland, but the west and south west was hardest hit. Over 1 million people died, and over 1 million emigrated between 1845 and 1851. In the following five years another million left. The population of Clare fell from 286,000 in 1841 to 166,000 in 1861. By 1871 it was half the 1841 figure.
According to Grenham, deaths were highest in 'south Ulster, west Munster and Connacht, those parts of the country where the population of subsistence farmers and labourers was most dense'
Between 1845 and 1855 two million people left.There has been much debate as to the financial status of Irish emigrants. Grenham says that between 1838 and 1844 (prior to the famine)
"Many of those disembarking at Canadian and American ports are described as desperately poor, but in fact, even at this stage, the majority of those leaving did not come from the very poorest classes. Even in the 1840s officials and landlords continued to complain that those who were going were the 'better sort'. As one Protestant clergyman put it, 'the young, the enterprising and the industrious leave us, while the old, the idle and indolent portions, the dregs, stay with us' "(p.58 op.cit.)Patrick O'Farrell, in his book 'The Irish in Australia' (1986) says that in Australia, Irish migrants were regarded as
"twisted and unfitted undesirables, the discarded human refuse of their home society... against this is the thesis of common sense. The best left, not the worst, leaving behind the broken, the dispirited, those who could not, or would not leave Putting aside the question of whether it was the 'best' or 'worst' who left, it was certainly the youth; most migrants were between 18 and 25."
1851
Gold was discovered in Australia, and the gold rush began.
1852
Mulquineys and Cahirs arrive in Australia (ancestors of my grandmother, Isabel Cahir).