Irish people in Jamaica

Irish Jamaicans
Gael-hIamáice
Total population
(300,000 - 700,000 (estimated 25% of Jamaica's population))
Regions with significant populations
 Jamaica
Languages
Jamaican English, Jamaican Patois, Irish (historical)
Religion
Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Irish diaspora, White Jamaican

Irish Jamaicans are Jamaican citizens of Irish descent whose ancestors originated from Ireland. Irish people are the second-largest reported ethnic group in Jamaica, after Jamaicans of African ancestry. Population estimates range from 300,000 to 700,000, making Irish Jamaicans up to 25% of Jamaica's population. Most Jamaicans with Irish heritage also have African ancestry.

Historical background

The first wave of Irish immigrants occurred in the early 17th century were mostly displaced native Gaelic speaking Irish, with official accounts from the 1630s recording the arrival of the Irish in the Caribbean. Many of this first wave of Irish were people kidnapped by press gangs operating in the vicinity of the ports in Munster. With control of Irish ports British expeditions could be mounted to the east coast of north America and to the Caribbean, and before going often times they would take local Irishmen with them for support, both by force and voluntarily. The Irish ports of Cork and Kinsale were the final stops before the long journey and the Irishmen mainly served as soldiers, sailors and servants.

Another factor which encouraged the Irish to immigrate during this period was conflicts such as the Elizabethan Nine Years War in 1603 and the confiscation of their land. This accelerated with the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the ensuing Irish Confederate Wars. With the violence in Ireland, The 1652 Act for the Settlement of Ireland caused an enormous movement of Irish westward to the Caribbean.

The first British colony in the Caribbean was on Barbados, and was colonized in 1626. Most Irish landed here when they first arrived. The term "Barbadoed" came from this event, and means to be exiled and sold into slavery. They formed a large part of the island's labouring and servant class, and as they were mostly rural and martial in tradition they were also good as a militia. However, due to mutual antagonism between them and their British overlords they were generally not trusted by the English authorities. In many cases they intermingled with the African and native Indian populations instead, particularly before segregation began in 1661.

Also displaced were a second type of Irish population, namely Catholic Old English merchant families from towns like Galway, Kinsale and Waterford. Often, these families reestablished their trading networks in the Caribbean and due to their urban background and high positions became more intermingled with the British. The two groups are often not easily distinguished by historians on the Caribbean side, but at the time the cultural differences were important as this group of Irish were mostly loyal to the British crown.

First contact with Jamaica

Irish transportees were first brought to Jamaica in large numbers under the English republic of Oliver Cromwell following the capture of Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655 by William Pen and Robert Venables as part of Cromwell's strategic plan to dominate the Caribbean: the "Western Design". The force that annexed the island undoubtedly contained large numbers of Irish troops, as they were encouraged to leave Barbados where the army assembled. Between three and four thousand additional troops were raised from volunteers among the indentured servants and freemen in the colonies of Barbados, Montserrat, Nevis and St Kitts, all islands known to have large Irish populations at this time.[1]

In 1656 Cromwell's Council of State voted that 1,000 Irish girls and 1,000 Irish young men be sent to Jamaica. it is not known if that shipment was carried out, but it makes clear what was envisaged for the populating of the island with labour by the British government of the time. Irish immigration to Jamaica occurred primarily through importation of Irish prisoners of war and indentured servants after the Irish rebellion of 1641 and also constituted the second-largest recorded ethnic influx into the country.

While indentured servitude is often conflated with chattel slavery, chattel slavery was not legally codified until the 1661 Barbados slave code. The fact is, rules were ad hoc before about 1660 and so the Irish were in a legal limbo as the colonies developed. Hence, thousands of Irish military prisoners were sold to plantation owners to work in the fields. There is no evidence of indenture contracts for the majority of these people prior to the 1660s.[2] In an eyewitness example that applies also to the Irish in Jamaica, Thomas Povey, a merchant with extensive business in the West Indies stated in 1658 that the majority of the Irish in Saint Kitts and Barbados had been transported by the English for treason.[3] Another eyewitness, John Scott, saw Irish working in the fields alongside black slaves; he further claimed they were "derided by the negroes and branded with the Epithet white slaves." They toiled in the sun without "shoe, shirt or stocking." Writing in 1660, the agent Robert Southwell lamented his inability to entice Catholic servants from Munster to South Carolina: “I could not obteyne any for the thing at present seems new & forraigne to them, &... they have been so terrified with the ill practice of them to the Carib Ileands,where they were sould as slaves, that as yet they will hardly give credence to any other usage.[4]

After 1661, and the privileging of white color with the Barbados slave code, an act designed to separate the African from European slave/servant populations, terms improved somewhat for those deemed white by the codes. The slave code was enacted on Jamaica in 1664. The conditions of indentured servitude could be as bad as chattel slavery, however, indentured servants gradually acquired the status of legal persons rather than property, and therefore had a chance at freedom if they could survive their contracts' terms of service. However, much of the population was already mixed, causing those deemed to be black to be trapped as chattel slaves for life. In 1687 Christopher Monck, the 2nd Duke of Albermarle was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica by the Catholic King James II. His office was supported mainly by the Irish Catholic farmers and servants, which shows that amongst the lower classes at least, the Irish were numerous.[5]

Later history

Migration to Jamaica continued through the 17th century, especially during the sugar boom on the sugar plantations of the West Indies, which forced many freed servants to look for land on the bigger islands like Jamaica. A Barbadian historian has estimated that of 10,000 Irish servants who left Barbados in the last quarter of the 17th century, at least half were destined for Jamaica, where land was available for small farmers. Also, it suited the British to have Irish settle near the internal frontier with the Maroons. From 1670 to 1700, Jamaica became the preferred destination for Irish and English servants departing the Atlantic ports at Kinsale, Cork, Galway and Bristol. By the late 17th century, some 10 percent of Jamaica's landowners were of Irish extraction and several, such as Teague Mackmarroe, (Tadhg MacMorrough) who owned eight slaves, attained the rank of "middling planter."

Later, in the mid-eighteenth century, Presbyterian colonial settlers who were fleeing Ireland arrived in the Caribbean. Scottish Gaelic speaking highlanders exiled after the Jacobite rebellions also came to the island in the 18th century.

In 1731, governor of Jamaica Robert Hunter said that the "servants and people of lower rank on the island chiefly consist of Irish Papists" who he said had "been pouring in upon us in such sholes as of late years".[6] In the mid-18th century, Irish native names such as O'Hara and O'Connor were prominent, as well as Old English families like Talbot and Martin. Names present in 1837, recorded during the compensation hearings, include Walsh, O'Meally, O'Sullivan, Burke, Hennessy, Boyle, Tierney, Geoghagan, Dillon.

Cultural influences

The Irish Gaelic language poet Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin wrote his only English language work in Port Royal, Jamaica while serving on an English naval vessel.

Notable Jamaicans of Irish descent

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ http://bcw-project.org/military/anglo-spanish-war/western-design
  2. ↑ http://www.historyireland.com/early-modern-history-1500-1700/shipped-for-the-barbadoes-cromwell-and-irish-migration-to-the-caribbean/
  3. ↑ http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/irish-indentured-labour-in-the-caribbean/
  4. ↑ https://www.academia.edu/5074224/The_Irish_in_the_Caribbean
  5. ↑ https://www.ewtn.com/library/HUMANITY/SLAVES.TXT
  6. ↑ http://www.irlandeses.org/0711_145to155.pdf

 

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