Before the Famine
In 1798, inspired by the American and French revolutions,the Irish staged a major rebellion against British rule. Widespread hangingsand floggings soon followed as the rebellion was brutally squashed. TheEnglish Army in Ireland was also increased to nearly 100,000 men.
Two years later, the British Act of Union madeIreland a part of the United Kingdom. The Act abolished the 500-year-oldindependent Irish Parliament in Dublin and placed the country under thejurisdiction of Britain's Imperial Parliament at Westminster, England.Although Ireland was to be represented there by 100 members, Catholicswere excluded.
Anti-Catholic prohibitions dated back to 1695when the British began imposing a series of Penal Laws designed to punishthe Irish for supporting the Catholic Stuart King, James II, in his battleto ascend the British throne in place of the Protestant, William of Orange.With an Irish Catholic army at his side, James II had been defeated atthe Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. The resulting Penal Laws strippedIrish Catholics of their rights including; the ability to serve as an officerin the British Army or Navy, hold any government office, vote, buy land,practice law, attend school, serve an apprenticeship, possess weapons,and practice their religion. The Catholic Church was outlawed. The Gaeliclanguage was banned. Export trade was forbidden as Irish commerce and industrywere deliberately destroyed.
See AlsoFood in Ireland after the FamineEarly Irish DietFish in the Irish Diet, Pre- and Post- Famine - Deep Maps: West Cork Coastal CulturesWikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Babylonians - Wikibooks, open books for an open worldWith 80 percent of Ireland being Catholic, thePenal Laws were intended to degrade the Irish so severely that they wouldnever again be in a position to seriously threaten Protestant rule. In1600, Protestants had owned just 10 percent of Ireland's land. By 1778,Protestants owned 95 percent of the land. When a Catholic landowner died,the estate was divide up equally among all of his sons, diluting the value.However, if any son renounced Catholicism and became a Protestant, he automaticallyinherited all of his father's property.
Various Penal Laws remained in effect for 140years until Catholic Emancipation occurred in 1829, largely through theefforts of Daniel O'Connell, a brilliant Catholic lawyer from County Kerry.But by the time of Emancipation, Ireland had become a nation laid low.
The French sociologist, Gustave de Beaumont, visitedIreland in 1835 and wrote: "I have seen the Indian in his forests,and the Negro in his chains, and thought, as I contemplated their pitiablecondition, that I saw the very extreme of human wretchedness; but I didnot then know the condition of unfortunate Ireland...In all countries,more or less, paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupersis what was never seen until it was shown in Ireland."
By the mid-1800s, many high-minded English politiciansand social reformers began to think that Ireland was a nation in need oftransformation, that its people now needed to be yanked into the modernworld by tossing out the old Gaelic traditions. To the industrious, ambitiousBritish, their rural Irish neighbors seemed to be an alien, rebellious,backward people, stuck in an ancient agrarian past. English reformers hopedto remake the Irish in their own image, thus ending Ireland's cycle ofpoverty and misfortune in an era when poverty was thought to be causedby bad moral character. The laid-back, communal lifestyle of Irish peasantswith their long periods of idleness was also an affront to influentialProtestants in England who believed idleness was the devil's work. Theyprofessed the virtues of hard work, thrift and self-reliance and regardedthe Irish as totally lacking in these qualities, a point of view also sharedby many British officials and politicians.
English reformers watched in dismay as Ireland's'surplus' population doubled to over 8 million before the Famine. Bountifulharvests meant the people were generally well fed but there were very fewemployment opportunities. The Act of Union had resulted in Ireland's economybeing absorbed by
Britain.Although free trade now existed between the two countries, England generallyused Ireland as a dumping ground for its surplus goods. Rapid industrializationin Britain also brought the collapse of the Irish linen and woolen industriesin the countryside with their less efficient handlooms. The British 'PoorEnquiry' survey conducted in 1835, revealed that 75 percent of Irish laborerswere without any regular work and that begging was very common.
The British government, under pressure from Englishreformers to relieve the situation, enacted the Poor Law Act of 1838, modeledon the English workhouse system. Under this relief plan, Ireland was dividedinto 130 separate administrative areas, called unions, since they unitedseveral church parishes together. Each union had its own workhouse anda local Board of Guardians elected by taxpaying landowners and farmers.The chairman of the Board was usually the biggest proprietor or landlordin the area. Each Board was responsible for setting local tax rates andfor collecting the funds necessary to maintain the workhouse. Inside eachworkhouse lived a resident Master and Matron, who were also supervisedby the Board. The entire system was supervised by a Poor Law Commissionerstationed in Dublin.
The 130 pre-famine workhouses throughout Irelandcould hold a total of about 100,000 persons. Everyone knew that enteringa workhouse meant the complete loss of dignity and freedom, thus poor peopleavoided them. Before the Famine, workhouses generally remained three-quartersempty despite the fact there were an estimated 2.4 million Irish livingin a state of poverty.
Early Emigrants
Many adventurous, unemployed young Irishmen soughttheir fortunes in America and boarded ships heading for Boston, New Yorkand Philadelphia. Emigrants during the 1700s were mostly Presbyteriansfrom the north of Ireland, the so-called "Scotch-Irish." Someagreed to work as indentured servants without pay up to five years in returnfor free passage. By 1776, nearly 250,000 Irish Protestants had emigratedto North America.
Between 1815 and 1845, nearly a million Irish,including a large number of unemployed Catholics, came to the United States.The men went to work providing the backbreaking labor needed to build canals,roads and railways in the rapidly expanding country. Irish pick-and-shovelworkers proved to be very hard-working and were in great demand. Americancontractors often placed advertisem*nts in newspapers in Dublin, Cork andBelfast before beginning big construction projects. The massive Erie Canalproject, for example, was built by scores of Irishmen working from dawntill dusk for a dollar-a-day, hand-digging their way westward through therugged wilderness of upstate New York. The 363 mile-long canal became themain east-west commerce route and spurred America's early economic growthby drastically lowering the costs of getting goods to market.
Back home in Ireland, on the eve of the Famine,the spirit of rebellion had once again arisen. Led by the brilliant orator,Daniel O'Connell, growing numbers of Irish were demanding self-governmentfor Ireland through repeal of the Act of Union. The Repeal Movement featuredmass rallies filled with O'Connell's fiery oratory. At one such rally inCounty Meath, nearly 750,000 persons came together on the Hill of Tara,a former place of Irish kings.
The movement peaked in October 1843 as O'Connelland half-a-million supporters attempted to gather near Dublin for another'monster' rally, but this time encountered British cannons, warships andtroops ready for a violent confrontation. To avoid a potential massacre,O'Connell ordered his people to disperse. The British then arrested the68-year-old O'Connell. While in prison his health broke and his RepealMovement faded. He died just a few years later, leaving Ireland leaderlessand without a charismatic voice during its darkest period.
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Britain.Although free trade now existed between the two countries, England generallyused Ireland as a dumping ground for its surplus goods. Rapid industrializationin Britain also brought the collapse of the Irish linen and woolen industriesin the countryside with their less efficient handlooms. The British 'PoorEnquiry' survey conducted in 1835, revealed that 75 percent of Irish laborerswere without any regular work and that begging was very common. 
Upon arrival at a workhouse, the head of a pauperfamily would be harshly questioned to prove his family had no other wayof surviving. Once admitted, families were immediately split up, had theirold clothes removed, were washed down, then given workhouse uniforms. Menand women, boys and girls hadtheir own living quarters and were permanently segregated. Workhouse residentswere forbidden to leave the building. The ten-hour workday involved breakingof stones for men and knitting for the women. Little 
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