By examining Irish experiences in Cumbria, a previously neglected region which nevertheless had historic attachments to Ireland through trade and proximity, this study has significantly enhanced our understanding of Irish migration. It has revealed much about patterns of settlement and communal development outside the principal receptacles of Irish migrants, such as Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. The Cumbrian dimension has also forced our attentions away from the Famine generations, for the timing of industrialisation and urban growth in the region necessitated analysis of the settlement and development of Irish communities in the later Victorian period, particularly between the 1860s and the early 1900s. Overall, this research prompts a number of interesting observations. We can now point out that there were many important Irish migrant communities outside the great cities which, far from fading quickly after the Famine, actually sustained a strong cultural presence well into the present century. Furthermore, in eschewing the commonly-articulated notion of the Irish community as uniformly Catholic, this study has also brought the hitherto overlooked Protestant dimension of Irish settlement under our gaze. From this broadened chronological and cultural base, we have learned that the tensions which arose between Irishmen over issues such as religion and home rule were as important as native hostility in fostering robust and competing senses of Irishness. What, therefore, can we conclude about these key features of the Irish experience in Britain; and what are the implications of our findings for future research?

It is to be hoped that this study will be the first of many to examine the continuation of distinctive ethnic enclaves in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for it is clear that other works of regional specialism are still required. We still know too little about Irish migrants’ lives in unfashionable centres of settlement, such as Cumbria. For too long, the label ‘Irish’ has been attached to archetypal settlements, for instance, those in Liverpool and New York, to the exclusion of other important centres where the Irish and a culture of Irishness also made a significant contribution to community life. That is not to say that the great cities of industrial Britain should now be ignored; far from it.