Lesson 1: General Introduction to the Period .
Ireland is an island, at the most Westerly point of Europe, approximately 32,400 square miles in area and the first landfall East of America.
Currently , the population is around 6million people , which includes some immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe attracted by the economic growth of the country , which has become known as the Celtic Tiger.
This Course will examine some of the reasons for the different waves of Emigration from Ireland , particularly in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Missionaries
This belies the fact that Ireland has been an exporter of people since the written word came to Ireland in the 5th Century.
St. Patrick came to Ireland in 432 A.D. , but the success of his conversion of the Country to Christianity led to missionaries leaving in numbers throughout the intervening centuries , right up until today .
Missionaries such as Colm Cille , who travelled to Scotland , Columbanus throughout Europe and St. Brendan who discovered America in the 6th Century , long before Columbus, all set the scene for future generations of ‘perigrinatores Christi’, wanderers for Christ.
Christian Missionaries from Ireland have penetrated every part of the globe throughout the ensuing ages and have left a feeling for Irishness wherever they have gone.
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