Ruth-Ann Harris:
The Nearest Place that Wasn't Ireland
Nineteenth Century Irish Labour Migration (Athens, USA, 1994)

Book Review by Roger Swift

As Cormac O'Grada observes in the foreword to this detailed study of Irish migration to Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century, in popular imagination mass emigration from Ireland began with the Great Famine of 1846-49. Yet, as Ruth-Ann Harris demonstrates in this welcome addition to the burgeoning historiography of the Irish in nineteenth-century Britain, there was an earlier and significant migration of men and women from Ireland to Britain which has been relatively neglected by historians.

Dr. Harris, who is Visiting Professor in History and Irish Studies at Boston College and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University, Belfast, notes that the stimulus for studying this earlier migration of Irish workers arose from her discovery that many chose to work as temporary migrants in England and Scotland in preference to emigrating farther afield. Thus her central thesis is that prior to the Great Famine Irish men and women decided to improve their living standards only temporarily when they might have bettered themselves permanently by emigrating to America, and the book seeks to substantiate this hypothesis by reference to the dynamics of Irish emigration between 1800 and 1845.

The contents of the book cover four inter-related themes. The first chapter provides an effective contextual framework for those which follow by delineating some of the methodological problems associated with research on pre-Famine migration and by examining, in the context of temporary migration, both the reasons why Irish people migrated and the reasons for their return. Dr. Harris then provides an illuminating profile of Irish migration during the period, replete with appropriate maps, graphs and tables, by reference to the historical antecedents of migration in Ireland, the kind of people who migrated, the implications of growing trade links between Ireland and Britain, and to regional patterns of migration. This is followed by an examination of the demand for labour in early nineteenth-century England and, more particularly, industrial Lancashire, with specific reference to work organisation, constraints on the English work-force, and the importance of a casual labour market which was an attraction to Irish workers. The final chapter charts the scope and scale of Irish migration during the period and analyses the experiences of Irish migrants - 'the reserve army' - in England, with particular reference to types of migrants and their occupations, living conditions, social organisation, and political and religious affiliations.

In essence, Dr. Harris argues that by the 1830s there was an accelerated expansion of the demand for the kinds of jobs which the Irish performed and that Irish men and women made a positive contribution to the growth of the British economy by willingly undertaking employment which others resisted, thereby enabling the English workforce to move into higher occupational brackets. However, the range of occupational choices open to seasonal Irish workers in England and Scotland during the pre-Famine period was narrowed sharply after the Famine, and those who left Ireland thereafter entertained little hope of ever living permanently in Ireland again. Thus, for Harris, the Famine emerges as a watershed in the course of nineteenth-century Irish emigration, although this has been acknowledged by other recent studies of Irish migration during the period. Moreover, she argues that 'the [Irish] migrant who lingered abroad was a failed migrant', suggesting that 'Overall it can be said that emigrants are failed migrants' (192), although these are conclusions which the present reviewer finds unconvincing, and which may well engender further debate.

The weakest section of the book is undoubtedly that which deals with the experiences of Irish workers in England. Here Harris revisits well-charted territory with familiar references to The Report on the State of the Irish Poor in Great Britain of 1836 and to the observations of contemporary social reporters such as Engels and Mayhew. South Lancashire provides the setting for much of this material, within which the work of W.J.Lowe looms large. Moreover, this section ignores much recent research on the subject, for although relevant post-1989 studies by Frank Neal, Graham Davis, Brenda Collins, John Belchem, Sheridan Gilley and others are acknowledged in the bibliography, there is little evidence in the actual text to suggest that such studies have informed Dr. Harris's arguments, all of which renders much of this section obsolete.

This is rather a shame, for The Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland, which was clearly a labour of love for its author, is otherwise a well-organised and coherent study, magnificently bound and presented, which utilises a wide range of quantitative and qualitative evidence to good effect. Each chapter contains a useful concluding synthesis and no fewer than seventy-five pages of text are devoted to detailed notes and an extensive bibliography. Moreover, by focusing on an unduly neglected exodus from Ireland, this book stands alongside Anne O'Dowd's Spalpeens and Tattie Hokers: History and Folklore of the Irish Migratory Agricultural Worker in Ireland and Britain (Dublin, 1991) in enhancing our understanding of the dynamics of Irish migration to Britain in the pre-Famine period. As such, it is essential reading for students of the Irish diaspora.

Roger Swift
University College Chester
Chester
England

This review originally appeared in Irish Historical Studies, XXIX, 116 (November, 1995), 608-10, and appears here with the permission of Roger Swift.