[Missouri gal]

How much Irish migration was due to the potato famine, and how much was due to British brutality? My great-grandparents, who left Ireland in the 1880’s, said they left because of British oppression. In those days, the British shot Irish for any reason whatever, including being caught worshiping at Mass. They also stole very freely from the Irish.

[James C. Bennett]

You will like the movie, The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

It portrays British brutality against the Irish.

[hinckley buzzard]

British brutality against the Irish did not stop during the famine. E.g., the Brits continued to export boatloads of food from Ireland while the Irish starved and died in the streets.

[oh8eleven]

My great-grandparents, who left Ireland in the 1880’s, said they left because of British oppression
Blacks rightly complain about being slaves in America for over 200 years.
But that's nothing compared to what the Brits did to the Irish for over 600 years - in their own country.

[Sherman Logan]

In those days (1880s), the British shot Irish for any reason whatever, including being caught worshiping at Mass.

Not likely. 1780s, possibly.

The penal laws repressing Catholics were harsh enough indeed, but they didn't outlaw the Mass nor shoot people for attending.

And by the 1880s almost all the penal laws had been repealed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_laws

[outpostinmass2]

There were two types of Irish. Green and Orange. The Orange owned most of the land. The Green were mostly tenant farmers of five acres or less. Not enough land to raise livestock and only enough to grow potatoes. There was little industry to find work and no land to own. Essentially there was no future for the Green at all in Ireland with or without the British help. My grandparents all left Ireland between 1905 and 1915. All as children two of them were orphans.