Disparity in Population Decline in Ireland

 ´What makes an emigrant? What are the pressures which drive a young man or woman from the townland of his birth and his family pathetically equipped mentally, to try and make a living in an alien mileau…Every man has his own story, every girl her own reason.´[i]

                                                                                         John Healy

Harry Clarke Stained Glass Window

Harry Clarke is commonly regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest stained glass artist. His name is synonymous with quality craftsmanship, imagination and a genius for selecting and using deep rich colours.

“The Titanic Rescue” and “Emigration” Windows

The Addergoole Titanic Society has spent countless hours, evenings and nights debating how best to commemorate the lives of the fourteen people who left the village of Lahardane, emigrating to the United States aboard the RMS Titanic in April 1912. Eleven of the Addergoole Fourteen perished on the tragic night of 14 April 1912.

Mayo: Seasonal Migration

At the turn of the nineteenth century, seasonal migration of agricultural workers from Ireland to the United Kingdom was practiced predominantly by communities found on western coast of Ireland.

Whether the members of the Addergoole Fourteen partook in seasonal migration is not the aim of this article. This article is merely highlighting that the practice was prevalent, and practiced by communities in the west Ireland, especially in County Mayo. 

Part 2. Saved or Perished? RMS Titanic, Mayo relatives anxious wait

This is article Two of Two, entitled “Saved or Perished? RMS Titanic, Irish relatives anxious wait”. Please see article One for background and context.

“We used get the paper and I used to read the paper for me grandfather. He’d hear all the news then. He’d sit down and I’d read the paper. Lord, it was terrible!”

Part 1. Saved or Perished? RMS Titanic, Mayo relatives and their anxious wait

‘Liverpool, 4.30 p.m. Tuesday. Referring to your telegram re Titanic, deeply regret to say that latest word received is steamer foundered; about 675 souls, mostly women and children, saved’

Connaught Telegraph, 20 April 1912

How did the relatives of all those Irish aboard the RMS Titanic learn of the fate of their loved ones?

Parnell In Lahardane?

After the Great Famine a period of reorganisation and prosperity was experienced until further famines occurred in 1878-81 and on several occasions during the 1890s bringing hunger and deprivation. The academic Roy Foster explains why this occurred: