Study on Assisted Emigration Scheme in Connemara

Galway Bay fm newsroom – An assisted emigration scheme from Connemara in the 1880s will be the theme for a conference that will be held in Clifden later this year. Efforts are underway to trace and catalogue information about the 7,500 people from west Connemara who availed of the scheme, which was organised by the English born philantrophist, James Hack-Tuke. James Hack-Tuke's reports from Connemara in the latter part of the 19th Century paint a picture of hunger, overcrowded homes and deprivation. Potato crop failures in the late 1870s made the situation worse and James Hack-Tuke saw little hope for many except the emigrant ship. The Clifden Union – as it was then – became one of the focus areas for the Tuke Assisted Emigration scheme; that was west of a line from Killary Harbour south to Cill Chiaráin. 7,500 people availed of the scheme from 1882 to 1884 – 12% of the population of Connemara. Where they went to in the United States and Canada, and the unfolding of their family stories, is being studied by a group in Connemara. This will be the theme of a Conference in Clifden from the 31st of October until the 2nd of November.