Irish Women, Poor Law Guardians, and the Challenges of State-Sponsored Migration

During the mid-nineteenth century, Ireland suffered a catastrophic famine, setting off an unprecedented stream of emigration. While the scholarship on famine-era migration is extensive, the literature on individuals, especially Irish women, who migrated with state assistance under the Irish Poor Relief Acts remains limited and often restricted to one specific colonial location. In this paper, I adopt a comparative approach, examining the role of Irish Poor Law Unions in the migration of Irish women to New South Wales in 1848 and the Cape of Good Hope in 1857. These case studies provide insight into the myriad of challenges faced by Poor Law guardians participating in the migration schemes. At first glance, most migration authorities hailed the projects as strategic opportunities designed to benefit the larger empire; many argued that state-sponsored female migration would provide a means to unpeople specific colonial regions and socially engineer the populations of others. At the local level, however, commissioners struggled to implement the plans, as some women refused to participate and colonial officials deemed others unfit. By placing these schemes within a comparative context, this project addresses questions of migration and gender and also highlights the construction of power relations crucial to imperial control.