In Search of a Better Life

This book of new research will challenge the traditional narratives of Irish migration, the stories of oppression and exile that form an essential part of the existing literature. It will argue that most of the migrants were not forced by circumstances to leave their country but looked forward to a better life abroad. They were largely opportunists rather than victims, whether financed by the state or by assistance from landlords or philanthropists, or, as by far the majority, by themselves or t