ABSTRACT
This essay will set out to explore the range of connections between gender and human migration in Ireland in the seven decades after 1852. The writing of Gender History in Ireland heretofore has largely acted as a proxy for Women’s History with remarkably little attention directed towards men and masculinity in Irish society. Some of the ways in which male gender conditioned migration patterns and behaviour will, at least, be considered. Migration will be viewed holistically, based upon a broad definition of migration as simply ‘moving home’. The three directions in which migration impacted upon Irish society and diaspora, immigration, internal migration and emigration will be addressed. In this period particularly, the scale of emigration from Ireland was quite exceptional and whilst Ireland was top of the European league table for net outward migration, it also was characterised by an unusually high incidence of female migration and some of the factors influencing this will be considered. How an individual’s gender effected the migrant experience will remain the central question under interrogation.
