For centuries the rural Irish have migrated, either to work, trade, beg or set up permanent home in Britain. For those wishing to travel to America, Liverpool was the gateway to the west. For as little as one shilling, travellers, known as ‘deckers’, would endure a rough crossing on the deck of the ship. By 1822 steam power allowed people to travel swiftly and regularly across the Irish Sea. Some would come over in spring for hay harvesting, remain for the corn harvest and return home in the autumn with money in their pockets. Besides these seasonal migrants, known as ‘harvest men’, pedlars and tramping artisans such as shoemakers would pass through Liverpool in search of work. The town also played host to paupers and convicted vagrants being deported back to their parishes in Ireland under the Settlement and Removal laws. In 1790 the Irish community in Liverpool numbered about 1,000. After the Irish uprising of 1798, and partly owing to growing rural poverty, migration continued to increase. In 1800 the number of Irish had reached almost 5,000, out of a Liverpool population of 77,653. By 1841 there were almost 50,000 Irish-born residents in a town of 286,656.

Navvies

In addition to harvesting, Irish labour was required for construction work, particularly for the building of new houses for the growing population. Industrialization also saw widespread improvements in transportation. This called for a strong manual workforce to lay railways and roads, cut canals and expand the docks. Such men were known as ‘canal bankers’ or ‘navvies’, short for navigators.