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corner of ireland |
by Ray Cavanaugh
“Sláinte, mon!”…
T
THE IRISH OF JAMAICA
TOP: Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper. RIGHT: Bog Walk Gorge, St. Catherine Parish, Jamaica.
32 IRISH AMERICA JUNE / JULY 2018
such other Irish” who were lacking a “settled course of industry” be “transported to the West Indies.” Also ordered for transport were “all prisoners” and “such children as were in hospitals or workhouses.” James Curtis Ballagh’s 1895 work White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia says: “Oliver Cromwell in preparing for his settlement of Ireland did not hesitate to transport large numbers of the dispossessed Irish as slaves to the West Indies.” Into “such shameful slavery” thousands of Irish women were dispatched, relates Justin H. McCarthy’s 1883 book An Outline of Irish History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Of course, a need for hard labor on the Caribbean plantations ensured that Irish men were claimed as well. Writing in the 1660s, a Rev. John Lynch, author of Cambrensis Eversus, describes the Caribbeanbound Irish: “many droves of old men and youths [and] a vast multitude of virgins and matrons […] the former might pass their lives in hard slavery, and the latter maintain themselves even by their own prostitution.” Lynch added: “Many priests are sent away to the islands of the Indies that they might be sold by auction.” Delivering his Sixth Donnellan Lecture in 1901, Anglican minister G. Robert Wynne remarked: “The victories of Cromwell in the English and Irish wars of the Long Parliament furnished thousands of white
PHOTO: BRIAN LUNDY / INSTAGRAM
PHOTO: NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
hat Irish is Jamaica’s second-most predominant ethnicity may come as a surprise, especially to those outside the country. It all started in 1655 when the British failed in their efforts to claim Santo Domingo from the Spaniards and took Jamaica as a consolation prize. Of course, the British also had been quite active in Ireland, where, between 1641 and 1652, about half the population had been wiped out. War, famine, and plague played roles in this decline. Another lesser-known factor was slavery. As part of his “Western Design,” Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was expanding his ventures in the Caribbean; as part of his “Settlement in Ireland,” he was tyrannizing many of the natives. To enslave Irish natives and transport them to the West Indies was a fine way to unite both agendas. Another dynamic was that few, if any, Englishwomen were willing to emigrate to the West Indies, so slave catchers and plantation owners began indulging a sweet tooth for the Irish colleen. Elliott O’Donnell’s 1915 book The Irish Abroad paints a rather vivid scene: “Gangs of [Cromwell’s] soldiers invaded Connaught, and pouncing on all the women and girls they could find, drove them in gangs to Cork.” At Cork, the slave catchers began to assess their plunder, among other activities. A 1969 Ebony magazine article, “White Servitude in America” by African American scholar Lerone Bennett, Jr., mentions various colonial undertakings involving white cargo, including a special 1655 project to bring “some 1,000 young Irish girls to Jamaica for breeding purposes.” Though Bennett says it’s unknown what ultimately became of this particular plan, his article talks about a colonial tradition that “in some cases” saw “whites, blacks, and reds [indigenous Americans]” being “sold from the same stand.” John Patrick Prendergast’s 1868 work The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland tells of a 1654 order (concerning the Governors of Carlow, Clonmel, Kilkenny, Ross, Waterford, and Wexford) requiring that “all wanderers, men and women, and