ABSTRACT
Irish emigration to Argentina is one of the better places for a student to begin Irish migration studies, for a number of reasons. During the next 400 years Irish emigration to Argentina continues to fit comfortably into the broad parameters of the Irish emigration taking place throughout that period. The anti-Catholic laws in force in Ireland during much of that time denied Catholics of good families an education or career opportunities in the civil and military administration at home until Catholic Emancipation was enacted in 1829. The Irish emigrants in the government and merchant classes appear to have formed a coalition to promote Irish immigration and designed a very specific settlement model for the Irish immigrants. When one looks at who benefited most from the settlement model operated by the Irish in Argentina one sees that a very high proportion of Irish shepherds, who arrived during Fr. Fahy's and Thomas Armstrong's time, became estancieros.
