Why would someone flee Ireland in 1777?

Question

Why would some people travel over seas from Ireland in the year of 1777,was there a war going on or something?

Answer 1

The Potato Famine that killed almost half of the country.

Answer 2

are you sure you got the right dates??

people in Ireland were very poor because the English took our lands from us(land plantations by queen Elizabeth)and then made the Irish pay very high rent on the lands that rightfully belonged to the Irish...some people could not afford to stay in Ireland there for moved to other country's searching for work..(America and England) when the famine came this just highlight the fact that the English had  depraved the Irish of land and money and food as they did nothing to help the majority of Ireland die or move country....some people stole food to feed their starving child and then when they were caught were sent to prisons in England or shipped off to Australia never to return to Ireland this lead to up risings...song were wrote about this like!!! the Fields of athenry ......and the to the 1916 rising in the G.P.O in Dublin

Answer 3

Maybe this, but the dates don't line up perfectly:

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

Answer 4

Famine (potato failure) and also it wasn't a great time to live here.  English in occupation, taking control of the land, demanding rent plus a high percentage of the crop, clergy doing their bit to add to the miseries of the people  -  the Catholics demanding about half a week's wages as a fee to baptize a child, the Protestants by law entitled to tithes on earnings, calling round to the houses to collect their "entitlement", and if the money wasn't there and the family had a single cow, they could confiscate that  ....   and very often did. And if you were bold enough to disagree, you could find a price on your head.  

Ireland wasn't a fun place in those days.  The lucky ones got out.  Times have changed  ...  it's a great place now.

Answer 5

I think the other answers give you a broad viewpoint of what it was like to live in Ireland at that stage. Strangely enough the actual figures of immigrants to USA show that more Prebyterians than Catholics fled the country. Presbyterians however were under the same rule of law as the catholic church i.e. Penal Laws, and were not classed as Protestant.

Interestingly enough the Penal Laws ensured that we in Ireland do not have the same infrastructure of pathways as those in the UK. The idea was to make it as hard as possible for us to get to our land.

I hope this helps, and maybe helps you understand a little of the antipathy toward the English.