In the late 19th century, Ireland was going difficult times, as the people were still suffering from the effects of the Great famine. The population plummeted and Ireland had a higher emigration rate than any other part of Europe. In the year 1899, more than 32,000 people fled from the country in search of seasonal labor and other jobs that could help sustain their families at home.
People were living below the poverty line in the rural areas in farmsteads and nasty urban tenements. It was an era when some Irish people still lived in mud cabins. During the late 19th century, the potato crop failed many as during the Great Famine. Infant death rates were also high. Almost one in every four children born in Dublin died before their first birthday. In Belfast, during one four-week period in 1900, there were as many deaths of children less than one-year-old as there were of adults over sixty years of age.
At the turn of the 20th-century things began to change. The average life expectancy climbed significantly, however; century a normal life span was still some twenty years shorter than it is today. The Irish Home Rule movement was at its peak. In 1919, war broke out between republican separatists and British Government forces. Eventually, the British Government signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which resulted in five-sixths of Ireland seceding from the United Kingdom.
Take a look at these amazing historical photos of Irish people from the late 19th century and early 20th century.
