The Irish of Montserrat, West Indies 1976
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ย. 2024
- Kinsale, Montserrat (West Indies) is home to a unique race of people, ‘The Black Irish’. ‘Radharc in the West Indies’ takes a look at the Irish story in Montserrat and the legacy that remains.
The story of Irish immigrants is known the world over and the island of Montserrat in the West Indies is no exception.
‘The Black Irish’ opens with a tongue-in-cheek advertisement for holidays in Kinsale. However, this is not Kinsale, Co. Cork, this is Kinsale on the island of Montserrat in the West Indies. Settled by Irish people in the 17th century, there are still reminders of Ireland everywhere. The flag, the accents, and the names.
The film features interviews with local resident Patrick Robert Reilly, (singing ‘Mother Machree’!) school teacher Catherine Ryan, Cork man Barney Columbia, University Lecturer Dr. Howard Fergus, Post Officers Mr. and Mrs. Allen, and a Belgian Bishop, Anthony Demesne, all of whom provide evidence of ‘Irishness’. The legacy of Irish immigrants lives on in the names, religion, accent, traditions and sentiment of many of the island’s inhabitants.
This is Amazing! I am half Nigerian on my father's side and half Montserration on my mother's side. I love learning about my cultures. My family and I visited Montserrat a few years back, unfortunately the area where my mother grew up was completely destroyed by the volcano, but we had an amazing time, meeting family members in person for the first time, learning about my African and Irish heritage, and immersing myself in the beautiful culture, from the food, to the festivals and dancing, it was wonderful! I can't wait to go back!
Some wealthy Irish merchant families set up plantations and networks in the Caribbean which provided employment for the thousands of Irish immigrants willing to travel to Montserrat. Almost half of the whole population of the West Indies by the mid-seventeenth century were Irish.[9] By 1730 Montserrat's economy was almost entirely dependent on this industry which resulted in a change in the population demographics as more slaves from Africa were required as labourers to keep the booming industry going.
Love it
Keep the Nigerian to yourself, not the most well liked people in Ireland
@@analyticalmindsetThey just colonisers nothing more nothing less.
Howdy bredren! I’m a Collins from whose folk hailed from Irish immigrants who found themselves in Appalachia around free-man in Arkansas. My great grandfather was Alexander Collins - a Catholic Freemason who wore a gold ring of the tribe of Judah that I eventually inherited from my Da/Granddad.
As an Irish man I feel such a profound connection with these people.. Amazing people.
My parents are from trinidad and I had a lot of Irish mates when I was growing up in the 80s. I've been learning a lot about the irish in the carribean. The irish in jamaica were called red legs cause they couldn't handle the heat compared to the black slaves - (cromwell is a hero in england watch the film cromwell its a good film but you can see how much the english love him!) but the irish hate him. Its only through talking to people about our combined experiences that we can build bridges. Jamaican patois has a lot of irish and african influences. How amazing is that ?!!
They are your people my friend.
Some wealthy Irish merchant families set up plantations and networks in the Caribbean which provided employment for the thousands of Irish immigrants willing to travel to Montserrat. Almost half of the whole population of the West Indies by the mid-seventeenth century were Irish.[9] By 1730 Montserrat's economy was almost entirely dependent on this industry which resulted in a change in the population demographics as more slaves from Africa were required as labourers to keep the booming industry going.
@@danielleehim3077 My background is also Caribbean, my dad’s side are Pattersons. My mother’s maiden name is Kelly, her dad is Irish and my my grandmother is Trinidadian
@@analyticalmindset what are you smoking? Thousands willing to travel? They where sent with force not there own free will yea clown learn you're history they where basically slaves sent by the dirty English
Very touching history. You couldn't beat love for bringing peace and joy to a land. God bless our Caribbean cousins and their friends and relations
💚💚💚
Nah you don't get it you ain't related to them your not indigenous to England Ireland Scotland or Wales. If you Caucasians how can you be indigenous to Ireland or England? Cheddar man and his tribe were the original Picts and Celts
My family’s from Montserrat 🇲🇸 such a loverly documentary wish my Nan could of watched this !
Another great video from the Radharc series. The videos on this channel, from the 60's , 70's & 80's show how far RTE have fallen since the heyday of Irish broadcasting
Ah sure you'd have been moaning about something else at the time.
Full of self hating kommie kunts.
@@tommoon5063 you sound the one that’s full of hate and self hatred😘
Its so interesting. And historical
@@jimjiminyjaroo300 Take your meds
""This is a brilliant post from you CR's--- but also a great History lesson. I work with a Montserration nurse who can trace her Irish Ancestry way bk. The Irish arrived on Montserrat in the 16.00- hundreds thanks to Oliver Cromwell. It's island is known as the Emerald Isle of The Caribbean.. BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE.. God Bless Our Faraway Brother's and Sisters- - and God Forgive The Evils of the People who banished them across the Atlantic to an unknown Island that reeked of Blood--- Sweat- and Tears....🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏💚💚💚💚💚💚🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
@Mary Kate Graham
Complete and utter load of tripe, why do people like you continue to fabricate this sort of rubbish, don’t you have a life in the present?
@@themaskedman221 well said mate, she wont like your reply, it makes them feel better if anti english sentiment involved.
Jonathan Christopher My Irish ancestors were lords who fought against Oliver Cromwell and his troop. Because they refused to change their religion, they lost their castles, lands, cattles, etc. They lost their aristocracy, but not their surname. Cromwell did enslave many Irish. He sold many Irish slaves to Arab merchants and settlers in colonies. He selected young attractive Irishwomen for brothel ships and the elderly & disabled for the coffin ships. Many sharks were known to recognise coffin ships, as they followed those ships, awaiting for victims to be thrown into sea.
@@pinklady7184 they became the ruling class of monserrat.
@@pinklady7184 That's nonsense.
I sailed over to Monserrat from antigua 12 years ago and stayed 3 days ,I’d go back again it was an amazin*place especially as it’s lost most of its liveable landmass ,because of the volcano,,,loads of great memories ,my favourite watching Rastafarian riding a white horse up the road past the cricket ground ;
I visited Monserrat 35 years ago and never knew about the Irish history. I come from full Irish stock from both my parents and now I know why Monserrat had which an intense affect on me. Thank you, this really is exciting to learn. I hope to go back for a visit.
lol ignorace usually has an intense affect on people
Those children are just precious 💝
The gealic word for jumper/top is geansi. The same word is used in the Caribbean but spelled ganzee and originates from Jamaican Creole. Definitely had some Irish lad bopping around in the 1800's going in about his fresh geansi and caught on to this day.
And here is where it gets even more complicated: geansaí (geansaidh in Scottish Gaelic) is a corruption of the word for the island Guernsey, from the use of Guernsey wool to make the said jumpers. So, in English, a jumper is a ‘Jersey’ from Jersey wool, so in Gaelic, a jumper is a ‘Guernsey’ from Guernsey wool. Funny, isn’t it?
@@eoghannp8619 What's the source of that? that Irish people used Guernsey wool for jumpers and that Geansaí comes from Guernsey?
"spelled ganzee and originates from Jamaican Creole"?? If ganzee originates from the Irish word Geansaí then how could it also originate from Jamaican creole?
@@user-yp3oj5se1i do you know what a creole is
Geansi also sounds like the Arabic word for ‘jumper’, جرزاية....a large migration from the Middle East came to Ireland in the distant past.
What a beautiful and fascinating film. Thanks for uploading.
That lad in the middle is a Sean alright full of confidence. And a twinkle in his eye.
Excellent documentary, been looking for this for years, facinating. As an Irish woman I am very proud of these incredible people.
When did you first see it
@@londonbowcat1 On TH-cam and Dailymotion. But there was only a few minutes of it, this is the full documentary
What the colonisers?
I first encountered the Irish of Montserrat in the late Pete McCarthy's "The Road to McCarthy" which devotes a whole chapter to the subject. This video was a great treat. Thanks for posting it.
I'm irish and from tullamore here in Ireland and I to feel a strong connection with these people
Hello from a Patterson/Kelly in the England with Irish, Jamaican and Trinidadian grandparents ❤️
@@SobrietyandSolace hello
@bastiat100% brother
@@SobrietyandSolace we are everywhere globally us irish I have cousins here whose father is African Portuguese and Jamaican
@bastiat our blood is of the finest people
A beautiful piece of history. As an Irish of Nigerian descent, its the first time am learning of The Black Irish of Montserrat. Wow. Africans have been under seige for centuries up till date.
And so have the irish
The Irish are white.
All black folk not from Africa
@@brittanyhayes1043 yea the new Irish who stole Ireland from the black peoples that was indigenous to that land
@@realonetho5333 No White people are indiginous to Ireland. Nice try.
After Ireland, the only country that celebrates St Patrick's Day as its national holiday.
@freebeerfordworkersyou’re full of sh*te
A beautiful video. Very fascinating. Thank-you for posting this.
Fascinating. Thank you for posting this.
Wow my great aunt was right my family originated from Montserrat. I’m a Ryan from Toronto and my father is a Ryan from St. Vincent and I was shocked to hear the teacher and some students with the same last name. Hey family ❤️
The denial of Irish suffering and any and alll " white" suffering is a way to pit us all against each other. This is essential for the ruling class to stay in power. It's really about class, not race.
The ruling class made it about race, hence why the Irish were move up to white.
Many thanks, great archive.
Radharc RTÉ (a program on the Irish national broadcaster from decades ago) needs to be given title credit for this presentation, not just at the end. But it was good to see this program.
6:10 1632 settled in St Kitts but left English Puritans to go to Monsterrat
Born & raised in Dublin Ireland & it makes me so proud to have connections with the beautiful people in Montserrat & other parts of the west indies.... I want to come visit this beautiful Island one day ....i always joke with my family especially my parents & saying I was born in the wrong country & I should of being born somewhere in the west indies & this was way back before i learned about our connections.....I always felt I have a strong connection with these beautiful people & their countries ❤️
Your not connected to the West Indies, your a colonial offspring that’s all.
These Irish, whose ancestors for thousands of years were cruelly and without choice displaced and deported from their own land, Ireland, only 400 years ago. And those planters that displaced them, Unionists and Loyalists to the British Crown, none of them have any receipts for the places they live on in Ireland.
So right Michael, it was malevolent beyond belief and is not that long ago when you think of the average timespan of a person’s life, the sufferings of which reverberate through the decades and centuries to this very day except now we are being hung out to dry by the gang of betrayers, chancers, hucksters and downright malignant excuses for human beings in the presemt Irish Government that would have withered and wilted into the earth with one penetrating glance from Michael Collins. It is criminal how the Irish people are being conned by these deceitful gangsters - but the utter devastation, fear, misery, despair, hunger, loss of any human rights and of any dignity in those Cromwellian times onwards, is almost enough to freeze one’s soul with the injustice and the suffering that our predecessors were forced to endure without end. And there had never been any public acknowledgment nor redress for this savagery imposed specifically upon the Irish people who were, in many cases treated much worse even then their black counterparts, if that is possible to even imagine. The book ‘The Irish Slaves’ by Rhetta Akamatsu, makes for gutwrenching reading - I have often had to stop reading it because of the sheer barbarity inflicted upon our ancestors which shows the boundless depths of Man’s inhumanity to mankind.
Please go deeper in your research
@@mandydunne7605 No, he summed it up quite nicely 👍
and the blacks?
@@anfieldreds_1892
Definitely They are Irish of course as they equally are decendants of the same generation, same as the current Irish people.
Michael.
My name is Cartey, I have just watched this video absolutely amazing, both my parents were from Montserrat.
Absolutely excellent sound for the mid 70's!
Patrick Robert Reilly sang the McCrea song beautifully!
That place had a volcano 🌋 erupt and Kinsale and the capital, Plymouth,are now abandoned with people living only on the northern part of the island.
That's right.. What a shame. Delightful people
All things must pass
The Irish government need to help these people. Ireland helps Palestine and many other countries. I think these people should be first priority
Siofra, Are you truly mentally unsound or what?
Watching this makes me want to visit there.
Fantastic! Love these video clips
"And to be precise 4182miles, give a mile or two..." A corkman?
Sure,and Fr Donnie is a friend of mine,told me all about,triple hibiscus,that the ladies wear 💪
There must be a bit of Kerry blood in him I’d say
Absolutely fascinating! Thank you
Cqjxfzauukto know pppppppp ppp0pppppppppppppppp mm mmmymmmm zum k
The children are gorgeous. All those Irish names, you know I can feel an Irishness off them. They have adapted well to the heat, it looks sweltering. It is quite green, even for the heat.🇮🇪🧚♂️☘
Virtually all Monstrations have common Irish surnames.
Not because they are of Irish descent - but because the Irish Slave Masters would assign their own surnames onto the Africans as a sign of Ownership.
@@connsaunders9600 Absolute bollox. Your history was obviously gleamed from the back of a cereal box. The facts are the majority of Irish forced to work on the earliest Caribbean plantations were those transported from Ireland as part of British ethnic cleansing of Ireland. Many Irish transported against their will worked side by side in brutal conditions with Slaves on the early sugar plantations. Others emigrated as servants to their British masters where they had no choice to do so having been stripped of any means of living in their own country by the British.
The vast majority of Irish like the freed slaves remained mired in poverty. Up to 1829 - the Irish living on the Island were subject to wide range of penal laws and restrictions. A small minority of Irish did become more British than the British themselves and were rewarded for doing so by being given jobs managing and running plantations. Some even went onto to own slaves themselves. They remain a true reflection of the great British Empire and the destruction and debasement of all people who were colonised by the British.
Ps. You may wish to stop denigrating all ethnic Montserratians by you referring to them as "Monstrations" and yes there are indeed some people from Montserrat who do claim Irish descent. Little do you know - the most common surnames in Montserrat are infact British with just one common Irish surname "Ryan" in the top 10. forebears.io/montserrat/surnames
@@emcc8598
Tell you what - Instead of getting your knickers in a twist.
Google the 1768 St Patricks Day African Slave revolt against the Irish Slave Masters. Or any other matter concerning the Irish owned Slave Plantations on Montserrat..... See what comes up !!
@@connsaunders9600 Looks like your own panties are in a bunch sunshine. St Patrick's day as it is currently celebrated started around 1985 in an major effort to attract tourists to the island. Prior to that "St Patrick’s Day was observed primarily in St Patrick’s parish, an area in the southwest of the island where early historic-period Irish settlements were numerous and where continued connection to Irish facets of identity seemed to be most intensely felt. "
www.thejournal.ie/readme/st-patricks-day-montserrat-2662360-Mar2016/
Maybe go educate yourself - rather than spreading British Imperialist nonsense about those who have lived and who live today on Montserrat.
@@emcc8598
Do you know any one from Montserrat by any chance ?
This a fairly well-balanced documentary from 1976. Note however, that it's reported from an Irish perspective and only skims over the story of the enslaved Africans, their modern-day descendants in Montserrat and the controversy among locals surrounding the observation of the March 17th holiday in Montserrat. March 17th was only declared a national in Montserrat in the 1980s mainly to honour the enslaved who planned the uprising for their escape. Also, as noted by the presenter, contrary to some accounts, not all Black Montserratians have 'Irish in their blood', and only a small group of Montserratians would fit the term 'Black Irish'. The term is not all-inclusive and is actually quite vague. There has been no real serious effort to bridge this relationship between those in Montserrat who claim Irish connection - or the entire British territory for that matter - and Ireland, especially the Irish Catholics. An opportunity for outreach.
MY mind is blown I had no idea, fascinating. We really do get around 😊🇮🇪
Colonisers
We shouldn't forget there African roots that are just as important as the Irish! 💯
You must be a pan African. Chill out. Please.
Not African, Israelites
Great history lesson. Thank you 👍
I was 4 in 1976. Those children will in approaching 50.
Thank you a lot beautiful video
My family’s from Montserrat big up to the LEE Family 🇲🇸
I am a Lee my father is Gullah geechy from South Carolina maybe we have a common ancestry.
@@glennlee2321Leigh
Yo family link up
Thankyou, and God bless from Iowa!
I was born in Montserrat...had to leave when the volcano erupted and my parents brought me to England!😅
Same here ! In 97 i think 💭 that’s when I came to England when I was just 7 years old myself
@@bigdomzlee8931 I was around 9 when I was brought here..😅
Great video ..thanks for posting
Great video CR as usual.
ABSOLUTELY SUPERB
They look just like my relatives, and I'm an allen
😂😂
Be great to go there for a few weeks.
Irish are worldwide❤
True colonisers
Proud to be a Kelly from Monserrat!
Montserrat and Jamaican accent are very close. Both countries had the largest amount of Irish people in our population.
How you know that? 🤔
@@lenardbarzey2788 Reading 📚. Both countries accent are almost identical.
@@damarasquest6704which white man gave you that lie in his book? Source please?
I love to watch this short documentary which is not well known to the masses unfortunately.
They ashamed of their history that’s why, colonisers
This is very informative
The real black Irish hey
Real “Irish”. These people match the descriptions of Great Britain nobles and middle class.
Very interesting history. Thank you. I had hoped to hear something about the Dyett family, in particular about the one who had his Irish family in Montserrat and had more children with a slave after his wife died. Any info here?
7:20 from Baltimore they came around 1633
Ireland Rasta reggae and Soca time on carnival too on great thank you
His voice gave me chills!
18:40 what race
I recently read the Tide between us about the so called "Irish apprentices sent to Jamica to work on sugar plantations" slaves by any other name.
Don't let BLM hear you say that, they've downplayed people's suffering to "Indentured Servitude". Years of labor to pay off transport to Montserrat, an island they couldn't point on the map let alone an Irish person in the 16th century.
No, indentured servants were not chattel slaves and this hasn't anything to do with 'political correctness'. This is about you, and others, twisting the historical record.
@Seaghán Ó Laochdha Irish Catholics on Montserrat were not "mainly Old English". That distinction had no significance in the 17th Century.
@Seaghán Ó Laochdha The Old English had control over The Pale, while the rest of the island was a patchwork of competing territories. Most, but not all, Old English were Gaelicized by the 16th Century. It was the failure of English leadership in Ireland that provoked the Tudor Conquest in the first place.
Look, the historical record here is needlessly muddled due to the bizarre and unconventional way Irish authors have written about Ireland's social history. But regardless of where you come down on this, the original claim you made was false.
@MartyrX keep being a victim buddy
Grand, now I need another drink. Jameson for me and a round of Bushmills for those hooligans in the corner.......
Jameson for me Daniel.
Hi
I was waiting for one of the childer to say..Gerry Adams
"""Sorry Mattú --- Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit--- especially when it demeans the plight of Children in a NOW VERY SICK WORLD.."".
I think what Oscar Wilde said was; "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence"....just saying!
@@marykategraham.205
It was intended to demean Adams - stop trying to move the goalposts .
Interesting video
I love this God bless you for sharing truth
Greeting!. My great-grandmother is of English nationality. Montserrat!.
She died in the Dominican Republic in 1978. I want to know how I can get the nationality of Montserrat 🇲🇸
Her name was Henriette Daly.
If someone can help me I would be so thankful!.
Look at the woman’s face at 2:30 when he tries to hit the high notes!! 🤣🤣. Very, very interesting video besides.
Lol 😆
The Irish were white cargo when they first came to monsterration .
Irish Slave cost five shillings and a African Slave cost fifty shillings at the same period of time.
Within the first thirty years most children on monsterration were greole .
Irish mothers and African fathers.
One was visiting monsterration in 1976 returning back from London England.
After watching black wash of Tony greig cricket team. Yes the Irish were slav.
OFC they costed less, you did not have to go far to get them.
Very interesting. Must visit.
Spent 3 days there some years ago also Antigua
Allen is a very common surname in Montserrat
My Great Grandfather is an Allen... never knew he was born on tht Island.
And it's not even an Irish name
@@Sean-jc6cu Where does it come from?
@@gatheringleaves Scotland
Mr paternal grandfather, Joseph Allen was born on the island in the 1880s. He married my white grandmother in England in 1900.
I was fortunate enough to visit Montserrat in 1998. Such a wonderful experience.
The fella who was talking about red heads sounds like a Dubliner
Sad how this place was destroyed by the volcanic eruption.
What's true is Monstratians are a lovely people. Hope they all get to go home soon.
As the narrator said at the end of this video we could all learn a lot from the people of Montserrat.
i would love to go see it
Me2
I got O'Brien's in my family.
I might be mindful of another volcano
The royals visited my grandmother's restaurant that was on the island before the volcano destroyed it sadly!
She kept the photos with them. #GoldenApple 😢🥰🇲🇸
Fredrick Douglas felt very comfortable in Ireland as a slave on the run... He said for the 1st time in his life while in Ireland he was treated like a gentleman...
Now if there were no black people, brown people here in Ireland why did he feel very comfortable...
He was good friends with Daniel O’Connell. One of Martin Luther King’s quotes on black history has been traced back to an O’Connell quote about Irish history. I wrote my capstone thesis about the cross pollination between the irish Republican movement and the African American civil rights movement.
Because simply in the account of his stay in Ireland - he was treated as a person and not as a slave as he was in America
From his book
"I can truly say, I have spent some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. I seem to have undergone a transformation. I live a new life. The warm and generous co-operation extended to me by the friends of my despised race-the prompt and liberal manner with which the press has rendered me its aid-the glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have flocked to hear the cruel wrongs of my down-trodden and long-enslaved fellow-countrymen portrayed-the deep sympathy for the slave, and the strong abhorrence of the slaveholder, everywhere evinced-the cordiality with which members and ministers of various religious bodies, and of various shades of religious opinion, have embraced me, and lent me their aid-the kind hospitality constantly proffered to me by persons of the highest rank in society-the spirit of freedom that seems to animate all with whom I come in contact-and the entire absence of everything that looked like prejudice against me, on account of the color of my skin-contrasted so strongly with my long and bitter experience in the United States, that I look with wonder and amazement on the transition."
Please don't believe the bullshit about Ireland and the Irish being pushed by a few lunatics on the Internet. Ireland was a British colony for approx 800 years under which its native people were brutally subjugated. We do not need others appropriating our history for the purpose of divisive racial conflict in America or elsewhere.
And as much as you might not like my opinion or comment, as I am a Brit, I completely agree with you.
Because people treated him well? Do you need to be surrounded by your own race to feel comfortable? I assume you're American in which case the answer is probably yes but for the rest of us that doesn't need to be the case
The same reason James Baldwin and other black writers, musicians and performers felt relief living in France in the 20th century. Because he didn't face an unending system of racial subjugation in his every movement. Because for the first time in his life he felt what it was like to be just a man.
What a nice lad.. if say he's chewed a few trees and built a few dams in his day
Hilarious
so funny I forgot to laugh
"""Thank u FortWarren -- Obviously a Man with a Brain - Heart-@- Soul...I didn't laugh neither-- as I'm so accustomed in this Evil world of Man's Inhumanity- 2- His fellow Man""--- Diá dháoibh agus Béannácht-Léat."""--- 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
"""Your Mouth I bet could Chew a few Iron bars whilst un- blocking some shitty waters running from your Ignorant Bowel - pit.."""....
@@marykategraham.205 lets not lower ourselves to op level Mary.
I worked with a man from Montserrat once, when he heard my surmame he was like "dat is a pimps name in my country blud"
That's Jamaican dialect - not Monstration .
@@connsaunders9600 thats what he said word for word, hes from Montserrat,take it up with him if you feel its cultural misappropriation.
@@feidhlimidhmacanaltha3644
"Cultural Misappropriation" ......Do me a favour !
@@connsaunders9600 "do you a favour" ? thats English Dialect not Irish.
@@feidhlimidhmacanaltha3644
I have to make my reply in two parts cos the halfwits at the TH-cam Thought Police keep taking it down if I post it as one sentence !
That's mad there's no place we don't get to in search of a good drink and a bit of craic lol
By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves. Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white. From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade. Families were ripped apart as the British did not allow Irish dads to take their wives and children with them across the Atlantic. This led to a helpless population of homeless women and children. Britain’s solution was to auction them off as well. During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers. Many people today will avoid calling the Irish slaves what they truly were: Slaves. They’ll come up with terms like “Indentured Servants” to describe what occurred to the Irish.
However, in most cases from the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were nothing more than human cattle. As an example, the African slave trade was just beginning during this same period. It is well recorded that African slaves, not tainted with the stain of the hated Catholic theology and more expensive to purchase, were often treated far better than their Irish counterparts. African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than 5 Sterling). If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. A death was a monetary setback, but far cheaper than killing a more expensive African.
The English masters quickly began breeding the Irish women for both their own personal pleasure and for greater profit. Children of slaves were themselves slaves, which increased the size of the master’s free workforce. Even if an Irish woman somehow obtained her freedom, her kids would remain slaves of her master. Thus, Irish moms, even with this new found emancipation, would seldom abandon their kids and would remain in servitude. In time, the English thought of a better way to use these women (in many cases, girls as young as 12) to increase their market share: The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion.
These new “mulatto” slaves brought a higher price than Irish livestock and, likewise, enabled the settlers to save money rather than purchase new African slaves. This practice of interbreeding Irish females with African men went on for several decades and was so widespread that, in 1681, legislation was passed “forbidding the practice of mating Irish slave women to African slave men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale.” In short, it was stopped only because it interfered with the profits of a large slave transport company. England continued to ship tens of thousands of Irish slaves for more than a century. Records state that, after the 1798 Irish Rebellion, thousands of Irish slaves were sold to both America and Australia.
There were horrible abuses of both African and Irish captives. One British ship even dumped 1,302 slaves into the Atlantic Ocean so that the crew would have plenty of food to eat. There is little question that the Irish experienced the horrors of slavery as much (if not more in the 17th Century) as the Africans did. There is, also, very little question that those brown, tanned faces you witness in your travels to the West Indies are very likely a combination of African and Irish ancestry. In 1839, Britain finally decided on it’s own to end it’s participation in Satan’s highway to hell and stopped transporting slaves. While their decision did not stop pirates from doing what they desired, the new law slowly concluded THIS chapter of nightmarish Irish misery.
But, if anyone, black or white, believes that slavery was only an African experience, then they’ve got it completely wrong. Irish slavery is a subject worth remembering, not erasing from our memories. But, where has this ever been taught in our public (and PRIVATE) schools???? Where are stories of Irish Slavery in the history books? Why is it so seldom discussed? Do the memories of hundreds of thousands of Irish victims merit more than a mention from an unknown writer? Or is their story to be one that their English pirates intended: have the Irish story utterly and completely disappear as if it never happened. None of the Irish victims ever made it back to their homeland to describe their ordeal.
His essay The Irish Slave Trade - The Forgotten White Slaves is about the 100,000 Irish people and probably far more, sent as slave labour to the new British colonies in the 1650s to 1660s. It began in 1625 when James 11 issued a proclamation that 30,000 Irish political prisoners be sent to the Caribbean. It escalated 25 years later under Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. By his death in 1658 from pneumonia safe in his England home, the Irish population of 1.5 million was down to an estimated 600,000.
What happened to the rest? They were killed in battles, resisting his well-armed force, large land thefts by his supporters leading to starvation and famines. His was the most successful of English conquests. It led to more men, women and children being shipped to Liverpool port and to the British colonies of the Americas and Caribbean islands.
Many were held on Spike island in Cork’s lower harbour. They were sold in the slave ‘markets’ to plantation owners for sugar, which was highly prized for the middle classes of England and Western Europe. This was political policy and documented at the time from debates in Westminster parliament. PR spinning disguised the reality of this human trade.
John Martin wrote “But are we talking about African slavery? King James 11 and Charles 1 also led a continued effort to enslave the Irish. Britain’s famed Oliver Cromwell furthered this practice of dehumanising one’s next door neighbour.”
It is not my first time reading this, as the Co Cork born journalist and writer Sean O’Callaghan’s book To Hell or Barbados was published in 2001, shortly after he died and tells the same story.
The scale of it is shocking. Or at least it should be. He wrote how the history of sugar in the Caribbean is also the history of slavery and oppression on a scale that Europe had never known.
He was a journalist for a Kenyan newspaper in the 1960s and in the 1980s wrote a book on modern slavery in parts of Africa.
Oliver Cromwell could be charitable and was a family man - but he and his army generals were seriously bad news for the Irish, Scottish and perhaps England’s Catholics too.
It is worth a thought, that we, who are born of Irish families going back 400 years in Ireland, are the descendents of those who were not taken.
For further reading see White Cargo:
The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America published by New York University Press, 2008.
They also published the US edition of the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine in 2012, after it was first published by Cork University Press to great praise for its research, maps and detail.
These are the lost slaves; the ones that time and biased history books-conveniently forgot-By John Martin.
I can't imagine being so desperate to feel like a victim that I'd write a psuedohistorical essay on a TH-cam video, but then I'm not Irish
The starting opening music sounds a little like Spancer's Hill. Please school me on the correct beat.
I think you mean Spancil Hill 🤔
The cheek of him saying we past on more than our names...after reading out criminal names n crimes ..there is bad apples everywhere ..can't blame people from hundreds of years ago most of which were forced to go and be slaves ..you blame lots of factors like phycology, genealogy,nature, nurture, environment etc ..wow that part really angered me 😬😤🤬
were the original Irish black? exhiled by Cromwell?
No but the actual black Irish were exiled from Ireland. Flight of the earls , massacre of drogheda , potato famine /genocide , all of those you read about black Irish
Skipping the history of indentured Irish sent there
Did you listen?
Irish history in the 'new world' is complex. I worked in an "Irish" pub in Gran Canaria in the 1980's... on the wall was a list of rebels imprisoned, transported, condemned to death with sentance commuted... and how they ended up on both sides of the American Civil war, governors of Syndney, in positions of power in what was the British Empire/ Commenwealth having fought against it... Also, you have 'history" before that... where planters who came to Ireland adopted names and took titles that might make it look as if they were "Irish" when they're no more Irish than the current British monarchy are English...
A Big History Lesson take note.
This is amazing. Once we conquer the world peacefully there will be no more war. Up the Irish 🇮🇪😉😁
Wonder has critical race theory arrived in the island
They will have to do penance for having white Irish ancestry and names, giving them an unacceptable advantage in life. CRT is loved by two groups the mad far left and the racist right.
I hope not! It's bollox!
It's a shame that some of us Irish imported slaves to the island,after suffering so much under the oppression of the British.
I'm no Marxist and think that CRT is satanic in nature, division amongst all of God's children is the work of demonic influence.
It seems like a lovely place to live, and hope abortion is illegal.
Love one another...easier said than done! I am the prodigal son and prey for forgiveness.
I'm not commenting to upset anyone and will not argue. I feel judgement day is imminent brothers and sisters. I've done vile things in my life and I'm not preeching though it seems like it, I'm not worthy to. God gave us choise and free will as he did the angels, they were given knowledge and powers beyond our conception and knew exactly what they doing when they followed Satan. Prey for me or hate me, be indifferent. Our cross is alcohol and all it leads to but I love being Irish, the kindest, bravest, funniest of people. God bless you all even the haters 🙏❤️
@@seekingthelight6401 Slave trading has been with humanity for ever. There were Irish slave traders raiding Britain back in the day and as you know one of slaves was St Patrick. It seems that some people within any population of humans are capable of terrible cruelty, be they Irish, British, Arab, African or Chinese. Keep praying for the haters they need it.
@freeborn John,what do you mean?..I know very well Monserrat,and wouldn't agree with what you say..very racist remark...
You may have noticed when the names were being read out at 19 mins. approx. all the names were Irish, probably. I am a defendant of black Montserrat and during my visit in 1998, it was known that the island is almost crime free. I came across few white people.
I am quarter Montserratian.
He needs to visit Jamaica to see the amount of people there with Irish and Scottish names.
Nothing to do with slavery, they didn't give the Enslaved their names,
Yes, Patterson for one
@@adriancarlos9155 A lot "Newell" I am irish descendant, black and Indian. 2nd largest ethnic group in Jamaica were Irish
@@damarasquest6704 indians are the 2 largest
Based on that dudes teeth I can confirm he is indeed as Irish as Brian O’Driscoll.
I'm putting a feckin claim In 😜👍🏼🍀🇬🇧
Stratian Pride, Worldwide...Ase'
Our brothers and sisters ❤❤
Historical
Listen to the song called A page in history by costello a dublin rap artist.
Does Jamaica have as much irish influence.
Mooretown for example is in Jamaica
Moore is a very distinctive Irish surname
Yes a lot of people in Jamaica have Irish and Scottish ancestry a lot of the people in the video sounds like my mothers family! Google the Irish of Jamaica.
Do they celebrate St Patrick day in Jamaica?
@@lyte4240 I believe it’s a very small celebration most aren’t aware of it! We’re a lot more Anglo Irish compared to Montserrat!
could refer to the Morocans
@@lyte4240 yes I think so. The Irish and Jamaican living in England got on very well they lived side by side 80% of mixed race people in Birmingham are Irish and jamcian. There is even a meme about it England were they say mixed-race people saying they are Irish and jamcian yet live in England and don't claim English
These people sound just like us in Jamaica
Before I start this as usual I say it's the brits fault.
do you also say that before voting, driving, or eating solid chocolate?
You would be right
@@rextheroyalist6389 what's that got to so with uk vile and current foreign policy
Delighted no oil . Or they be living a wrecked life. Beside USA
@@derekkearns3377 could you rephrase that in a way that's comprehensible
"...Black in color but possessing many of the best in traits of the Irish" HUH?! What in the racist comments is this? 😯😟
Some suntan that paddy has lol
Yea not a redser in sight😁
Those kids looked scared of that man ,or someone in that room 😳
The interviewer had the skills of an amateur but the point is understood
Agreed but are we not so tired of weasely professionals
Hey, Tony, don't think you would do much better yourself, SO GET A LIFE OR PISS OFF !!