Chapter One 17

was, but the others had to learn a trade or find a different occupation. And the rapid rise in the birthrate resulted in more and more poverty-stricken and landless people. From 1.3 million in 1687, the population of Ireland rose to over 8 million in the 1840s before the Potato Famine cut it back drastically. The penal laws against Catholics - the majority of the Irish - were harsh. Although some of these laws, such as the prohibition against owning a horse worth more than five pounds, had largely been ignored, and while still others had been repealed in the late eighteenth century, there were some rather draconic laws still in force as late as 1829. Only fourteen per cent of Irish land was owned by Catholics. Families were forced to pay taxes to support the Anglican Church of Ireland to which they had no intention of belonging. Later these taxes were included in the tenant’s rent.

Frequent rebellions, violence, secret societies, and general unrest were among the few possible reactions to this situation. The English response to the situation was to keep a large standing army in Ireland. In the early eighteenth century, it consisted of over 15,000 men. Every town had its barracks. Even improved civil rights seem not to have improved the situation. ”Violent confrontations, and the sense of an underlying alienation continued as a theme of rural life up to the 18305,” states Foster. Still, after all the penal laws had been revoked and Catholics, in theory, could vote and enter the professions, this turbulent situation continued. In spite of improvements in education and health care, “the 18308 were a decade of particular unrest”. Not surprisingly, it was also the decade that saw many Irish families immigrate to the Tignish area.

In short, there was every reason for an Irishman or woman to get away if he or she possibly could. Once on a North American shore, they could travel about - and many did - until they found a place with more or less fertile soil, remote from governments and rent collectors. The area from Nail Pond to North Cape was almost