Mass deportation of Irish to colonies due to potato famine

Okay, wild crazy idea: if Britain won't, how about some OTHER state offers to ship the Irish to THEIR colonies/countries? Perhaps some Catholic settler colony that desires more of that specific kind of workforce. Thinking France, Spain or the Latin American countries here. Possibly protestant countries might do so as well.

Would the British ever allow that, you think?

Are there any whose colonies wouldn't pitch a fit?
 

Lusitania

Donor
One thing can’t remember which Middle East country ruler upon hearing of the Irish plight sent relief food to Ireland but the British embarrassed by the outside offer refused it.
 

Lusitania

Donor
The other problem was that while There were organizations and religious groups who volunteered and helped there was no outside help allowed. In the US there was an anti catholic and anti Irish sentiment in those in power that would of prevented any government response. In Canadian colonies there was help, in Quebec thousands of orphans where adopted through the church. (Ironically most of the orphans kept their Irish surnames as a way to Jon our their families). But no colony of foreign government was paying for the passage for the Irish.
 
I don't know of any landlords that actually allowed any tenants to continue to farm without paying rent (so it seems that advice was hogwash),

I THINK some did back in the first year, but well....

Many Irish wanted to leave, but were too weak to actually go to the ports and had nothing to sell for the ticket money.

Plus, didn't help you'd get scalpers in say, Manchester who would sell an adult male a ticket for a child on a ship that left last week, and be congratulated he only paid 14 English pounds by the only honest man in Manchester. Stuff like that didn't help matters.

Also it was actually cheaper to just evict and boat out many tenants as opposed to evicting outright, thanks to the Poor Rate.

That could have disastrous long-term effects for the British Empire.
You would have a white population in the colonies that really didn't like the British with centuries of experience of getting around British rule and would cooperate with the natives against British.

Hell, that assumes you can evict them en masse. If I'm starving and most of my family is dying from the plague, and oh look, now I'm being evicted, well..... Not like I have that much to lose.

One thing can’t remember which Middle East country ruler upon hearing of the Irish plight sent relief food to Ireland but the British embarrassed by the outside offer refused it.

Turkey, but probably a legend. Depends on who you ask.
 

Zen9

Banned
Yes.

"The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine."
Sort of sadly true.
Properly, the still mostly Norman-Irish aristocracy in close cahoots with the still mostly Norman-English aristocracy and the still mostly Norman-Scottish aristocracy tried to turn a profit out of Ireland in similarly cack-handed ways to how they screwed up Bengal. They saw an opportunity to clear tracts of land held has small holdings of not very profitable peasants and turn it over to profitable cattle farming.
Much like Scottish landlords cleared tracts of Scotland for grazing.....cleared of people that is...
 
Turkey, but probably a legend. Depends on who you ask.
The Sultan of Turkey (Britain was an important ally against the Russians at the time) made an enormous contribution to the famine relief subscription fund. Britain showed no sign of embarrassment and accepted the donation.
 
It would be interesting to see if Gaeilge would be spoken in parts of Australia after mass Irish settlement.

Unlikely. The dominant language in settler colonies was, basically without exception, the language of the first settlers. Later groups assimilated.

Australia was first settled by Englishmen and they set the course. I think the only way you can have a permanent Irish-speaking community is if it can establish its own, autonomous colony on the continent of Australia. I'm not sure the UK would care for that though, and even if so, not all Irish emigrants spoke the Irish language by this time.
 
I'd imagine one of the provinces of Canada or a large part of Australia being Irish dominated. If it got bad enough, Australia might just end up an Irish colony lol.
 
"Not everyone could pay for a ticket to America...' It appears a great great grandmother of mine made it to America when her brothers hijacked a sufficiently large fishing boat for whatever family they brought along.
 
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