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Places of Origin
Counties and Birthplaces

 

An estimated number of 70,000 Irish-born people emigrated to Latin America up to the 1930s. Among them, about 50,000 selected Argentina as their initial destination. Analysing the origins in Ireland of the emigrants to Argentina provides their geographic profile.


Demographic Profiles of the Irish Settlers in Argentina

The source database used to build the list of Irish Settlers in Argentina allows some demographic analysis, which will be summarily described below. Since the database is not a representative sample of the universe of immigrants, the results of this analysis should not be extrapolated to the entire population of Irish emigrants to Argentina. Such a procedure would generate invalid assumptions. During the nineteenth century, forty to forty-five thousand Irish emigrants arrived in Argentina, and it is estimated that about twenty thousand of them settled in the country, while the others re-emigrated to North America, Australia, Ireland, or other destinations. Among the twenty thousand settlers, ten to fifteen thousand died without issue or broke their links to the local Irish community. Therefore, the nucleus of the Irish-Argentine community was developed with only four to five thousand settlers. 'While Coghlan records cover about 15-20% of the total estimated Irish emigration, it is not a random sample of the emigrants who originally left Ireland for Argentina in the nineteenth century, many of them only settling there for a short period before moving elsewhere in the Americas' [McKenna 1994, op. cit.]. Hence, the following demographic analysis is valid for this segment only.

 
County of Origin
County
Settlers
%
Westmeath
766
42.9%
Wexford
278
15.6%
Longford
273
15.3%
Cork
81
4.5%
Clare
68
3.8%
Offaly
55 3.1%
Dublin
47
2.6%
Kerry
30
1.7%
Others
188
10.5%
Total
1,786
100.0%





Selected Birth Places (parish)
Parish County Occurrences
Ballymore WEM 82
Ballynacarrigy WEM 59
Drumraney WEM 46
Mullingar WEM 42
Ballymahon LOG 38
Moyvore WEM 36
Miltown WEM 35
Kilkee CLA 26
Loughnavally WEM 23
Dublin DUB 21
Kilbeggan WEM 17
Castletown Bearhaven COR 15
Moate WEM 13
Multyfarnham WEM 13
Rathowen WEM 13
Tubberclair WEM 12
Edgeworthstown LOG 11
Kilrane WEX 11
Sonna WEM 10
Ardagh LOG 10
Castletown Geoghegan WEM 9
Empor WEM 9
Castle Annesley WEX 9
Enniscorthy WEX 9
Tagmon WEX 9
Horsleap WEM 8
Carrickedmond LOG 8
Forgney LOG 8
Abbeyshrule LOG 4

Chapman Codes for Irish Counties
ANT Antrim KER Kerry MOG Monaghan
ARM Armagh KID Kildare OFF Offaly (ex-King's Co.)
CAR Carlow KIK Kilkenny ROD Roscommon
CAV Cavan LDY Londonderry SLI Sligo
CLA Clare LET Leitrim TIP Tipperary
COR Cork LEX Leix, Laois (ex Queen's Co.) TYR Tyrone
DON Donegal LIM Limerick WAT Waterford
DOW Down LOG Longford WEM Westmeath
DUB Dublin LOU Louth WEX Wexford
FER Fermanagh MAY Mayo WIC Wicklow
GAL Galway MEA Meath
 


Acknowledgements:

We are grateful to Margarita O'Farrell de Coghlan and to Martha Coghlan for the authorisation to use information from Eduardo Coghlan's works.


 

The Society for Irish Latin American Studies

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