Fleeing from famine in Connemara: James Hack Tuke and his assisted emigration scheme in the 1880s

Between 1882 and 1884 the English philanthropist and Quaker, James Hack Tuke assisted nearly 5,000 poor and destitute people from Connemara and sent them to the United States and Canada. The aim was to rescue them from perennial starvation and famine, while at the same time improving the position of those who remained at home as they would have more land and receive remittances from the emigrants.

[Subjects: Irish History; Nineteenth-Century History; Emigration; Philanthropy; Social History; Connemara; Great Irish Famine].