'The difficulty indeed the impossibility of writing about Ireland in such a way as to win the approval of Irishmen may arise from the ambiguity of their own feelings towards her. If she is criticised they are publicly furious and privately amused; if praised they are outwardly pleased while inwardly condemning the writer as a fool.' Honor Tracy's warning suggests that writing about the Irish in Britain may be foolhardy twice over.

Preface.

Since the pioneering work of J.E. Handley and J.A. Jackson there has been no substantial, single-author history that has addressed the subject of the Irish in nineteenth-century Britain.

Introduction.

The population history of nineteenth-century Ireland draws powerfully on two haunting images - the shadow of the Great Famine and the spectre of emigrants fleeing overseas.

1. Emigration.