Pirates & Privateers: Cian T. McMahon's Books

Emigration from Ireland begins long before the 19th century and continues after its conclusion, but during the potato blight that causes the Great Famine, there is a mass exodus of people from the country. They sail on vessels that become known as “coffin ships,” because one in three emigrants die during the journey. This label presents a history of only one dimension and fails to provide a true understanding of the emigration process that these Irish men, women, and children endure. McMahon employs this term for the book’s title to challenge the established concepts of this diaspora and open up new venues of discussion and research that enlighten and expand on our understanding. He does so by sharing what the emigrants think of and experience during their journeys using their letters and diaries, as well as newspapers, government documents, and guidebooks of the period.

To best comprehend the context of the Great Famine, McMahon sets the stage with a brief look at what Ireland is like before the blight. This is a time when the majority of landowners are Protestants who lease their lands to tenant farmers. Many are poor, but their lives are enriched by the social community in which they live. The blight strikes first in 1845, and the mass exodus of Irish because of the resultant famine ends a decade later. This is the timeframe that McMahon focuses on here. At the beginning, Ireland has a population of 8,500,000, one million of which will die during the Great Famine. Two million choose to escape the dire conditions, but there aren’t enough ships to carry them; this leads to delays, additional expenses, and problems that the emigrants have to confront. So how do they cope?

He divides his analysis of this question into five segments: Preparation, Embarkation, Life, Death, and Arrival. Chapter one focuses on how the Irish gather the necessary resources to leave Ireland. This is but the first step as chapter two shows by examining how the emigrants travel to their embarkation points. Both of these illustrate that an intricate network of relationships exist to help them to acquire the tickets and items they need for the journey and to get to the port – most often Liverpool, England – where they can board a ship that will take them to their new homelands.

Chapter three concerns the ocean voyage itself, while chapter four deals with death at sea. What life is like and how the emigrants adapt are key components here, as is how their shared experiences dissolve old bonds of the past to form new bonds to cope with life and death at sea. The final chapter discusses what happens once the ships dock at their destinations, the challenges the immigrants face, and the revamping of relationships tying them to their new homes in addition to the one of their birth.

Part of the Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series, The Coffin Ship includes an essay that discusses the sources McMahon consulted and his methodology. Graphs and illustrations are interspersed throughout the narrative. Endnotes, a bibliography, and an index round out this study.

Most histories concern the emigrants who travel to America, but McMahon includes those who sail to other parts of the world – Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand – and includes the convict experience as well. Through the use of poetry and quotations from primary documents, he breathes life anew into these individuals so that readers experience their emotions, joys, and sufferings. He also shows how the migratory process works and consists of reciprocal means that extend far beyond the national boundaries of Ireland to reconnect Irish immigrants with those left behind. We often think that emigrating is a solitary experience, and to some degree it is, yet McMahon also shows how helping hands exist all along the way, allowing social bonds to dissolve, reform, and reconstitute themselves. Even though his study focuses on the Irish diaspora, he connects it to current issues concerning refugees. This is an invaluable addition for any collection dealing with the Great Famine, the Irish diaspora, and the refugee experience.