Description

'I have at last reached the desired haven', exclaimed Belfast-born Bessie Macready in 1878, the year of her arrival at Lyttelton, when writing home to cousins in County Down. Utilizing fascinating personal correspondence exchanged between Ireland and New Zealand, this book explores individual responses to migration during the period of the great European emigrations across the world. It addresses a number of central questions in migration history such as the circumstances of departure. Equally why did some connections choose to stay? And how did migrant letter writers depict their voyage out, the environment, work, family and neighbours, politics, and faith? How prevalent was return and repeat migration? In answering these questions the book gives significant attention to the social networks constraining and enabling migrants.

The book represents an innovative and original contribution to the history of European migration between the mid-nineteenth century and the interwar years. It addresses broader debates in the history of European migration relating to the use of personal testimony to chart the experiences of emigrants and the uncertain processes of adaptation, incorporation, and adjustment that migrants underwent in new and sometimes unfamiliar environments. The book also adds to the ever-increasing historiography of the Irish abroad.