1How did past societies deal with outsiders who had become dependent on public charity? This book co-authored by Lewis Darwen and Donald M. MacRaild explores a largely under-researched subject – that of the (forced) removal of Irish paupers in Britain during the long 19^th century. Numbers are impressive: around 300,000 destitute Irish were shipped back to Erin between 1819 and the 1940s – the majority being removed during the 1819-1860s period. The bulk of Irish returnees were single and (relatively) young men and women – with an overrepresentation of single mothers in the female category.

3In 1819, a change in the poor law made it easier for parish unions to remove unwanted paupers from their places of abode. Removals of Irish paupers were disproportionate when compared with their Scots, English and Welsh counterparts. Yet the decline in the numbers of Irish removals during the mid and late Victorian eras reflected the better socio-economic conditions in Britain, as well as a general political drive towards a more humane system. The Poor Removal Act (1861) stated that removed Irish paupers were to be accompanied back to the poorhouse of their union in Ireland: this impractical requirement did discourage British local officials to order and enforce too many removals from then on.

4However, the removal of Irish vagrants and paupers did not go unchallenged: as early as the late 18^th century, Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations (1776) had already strongly criticised the removal system for being both cruel and an impediment to the free movement of labour. Voices of protest, in Britain and Ireland, were largely inaudible until the enactment of the New Poor Laws (1834 in England and Wales; 1838 in Ireland; and 1845 in Scotland), which established centralised bodies that could channel discontent regarding mass removals.

5Among the strengths of this book is the examination of a multiplicity of layers, e.g. the undertaking and effects of removal laws examined both at national and local levels. Individual cases which are recounted further allow readers to get a glimpse of the harsh realities of shipping conditions as well as heart-breaking situations – as in the case of deserted women and children for instance. More generally, the history of Irish removals sheds new light on the history of Ireland under the Union (1800-1922), as debates on the repeal of removal laws show the lingering anti-Irish prejudice in the aftermath of the Great Famine and well beyond. The Famine in itself was a watershed in the case of forced returns: around 100,000 Irish paupers were shipped back to their native land, with little prospects of receiving any public relief once they had landed. The unfairness of removals was also brandished by Repealers during the Emancipation campaign of the 1820s and then in the post-1848 growing nationalist movement. Those in Britain who defended the settlement laws played on the fears of an “Irish invasion” in the post-Famine context. This is where micro-history meets macro-history: the “Irish pauper problem” was contained in the hot political “Irish Question” pertaining to political autonomy and independence.

6Overall, by offering the first complete study of the legal, social, economic and cultural dimensions of Irish pauper removals, this book is a great addition to the thriving literature on Irish migrations. The two authors also refer to the North American studies on the issue, thus encouraging future research on the transatlantic nature of Irish removals.