Making an Irish Free State City – The Irish Free State emigration

The shadow of large amounts of young people emigrating from ports such as Cork and towns such as Cobh in the 1920s is nodded to in many newspapers. One notable write-up appears in the Cork Examiner on 18 February 1926, one hundred years ago this week.

The Cork Examiner makes reference to statistics with regard to emigration from the Irish Free State during 1925 given in the Irish Trade Journal and issued by the Department of Industry and Commerce.

The number of emigrants to non-European countries from January to October of 1925 was 27,150, as compared with 14,883 in the corresponding period of 1924. This great increase was explained principally by the fact that there was practically no emigration to the United States during the first six months of 1924 – “all places in the (then) Great Britain and Ireland quota having been filled in the autumn of 1923”.

In 1925, under the US Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), the Irish Free State achieved an annual immigration quota of 28,567, while Northern Ireland was included in the British quota at 34,007. These quotas, based on an 1890 census, heavily favoured Northern/Western Europe, offering Ireland a relatively high allotment compared to Southern/Eastern Europe.

With US quotas filled, consequently, emigration to Canada was intensified to some extent during the first six months of 1924. However, for the most part, intending emigrants preferred to apply for places in the US’s new Irish Free State quota, which began in July 1924.

Emigration to the US during each of the months July, August and September of 1925 increased considerably compared with the corresponding months of 1924. The Irish Trade Journal outlines that the October 1925 emigration was less than that of 1924. As far as November and December 1925 were concerned, through the preliminary returns of emigration at Cove (now Cobh), they were regarded as an index of the total movement, emigration during these months was considerably less in 1925 than in 1924.

On the corresponding side in the US, the Cork Examiner makes reference to the US Monthly Labour Review of October 1925, which highlighted migration statistics in the year ended June 1925. At that point the Irish Free State quota was completely filled - 28,567 persons born in the Irish Free State were admitted as immigrants into the United States. Of this total, 25,440 persons had resided in the Irish Free State. The Cork Examiner proposes that the difference therefore, of 3,127 must have represented those, who born in the Irish Free State, were resident elsewhere before emigrating to the United States.

There is a nod in the Cork Examiner newspaper article to statistics gathering in pre-First World War years, but not detailed figures. The best figures were those of the Registrar-General for Ireland based on voluntary returns supplied to the police at the ports. Such returns gave an annual average of emigrants from the present Free State to other countries than Great

Britain as 57,544 for the period 1831-1890, and 36,050 for the period 1891-1900. In 1908 emigration fell to 15,825, and in 1913 it was 20,607.

The Cork Examiner article denotes that before the First World War there were two streams of migration each year. One, in spring, which reached its highest point in April and the highest point in the whole year. The other, in autumn, generally reached its highest point in September. Emigration was at its lowest in mid-winter and mid-summer.

In spite of the American limitation on the number of visas granted in any one month, seasonal fluctuations had begun again to reappear in the 1925 returns. Thus, in 1924 and 1925 spring emigration reached its highest point in March. The monthly total then sank to a low point in mid-summer, after which it increased in the autumn, and then again declined until December. Formerly migration was always heavier in spring than in autumn. Statistics for 1925 exhibited the same tendency in a smaller degree.

The Cork Examiner article also reflects on the type of work being pursued by Irish emigrants. The total emigration during 1924 was 10,282 males, 7,978 females and 817 children under 12 years of age. In the three quarters of 1925 these numbers rose to 11,651 males, 11,347 females, and 845 children. The explanation of the increase in the number of female’s emigrating is that most of the emigrants went to Canada.

The bulk of the emigrants were agricultural labourers, or labourers not engaged in transport or communications, and for the most part went to the US.

Females emigrated at an earlier age than males. In the first six months of 1925, 25 per cent of the males and no less than 43 per cent of the females were under twenty-one. The fact that very few of the emigrants in the first half of 1924, but practically all in the first half of 1925, went to the United States, accounted for the very different ago distributions in the previous two years.

That emigrants went at a much earlier age to the United States than to other non-European countries was due to the fact that most of them went to relatives or friends already there. By far the largest proportion of the female emigrants were described as of the 'domestic servant class’.

The Cork Examiner article concludes its analysis by denoting that married women numbered 28.7 per cent of the total of female emigrants from January to June 1924, but in 1925 year only numbered 9 per cent, of the total. This was due to the fact that very few of the emigrants in the first half of 1924 went to the United States.

The greater proportion of married women and children under 12 among emigrants to countries other than the United States showed a greater tendency to emigrate in families rather than as individuals to those countries. Thus, when the tide of emigration turned again to the United States there was a corresponding increase in the proportion of domestic servants among the female emigrants.