A devoted Presbyterian Minister

Asenath Nicholson

Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger

1847

Chapter XXV (12) | Start of Chapter

My next call was to the house of a Scotch Presbyterian, named Smith. I mention his name because I delight to dwell upon it; the remembrance of those "mercy-drops" in the desert, where I was often hungry and thirsty, is pleasant to the soul. His wife, who is of a good family in England, received and welcomed me with all that Christian courtesy that made me feel myself at home among kind friends. Something was immediately brought me to eat, and presented in that manner and abundance that said, "you will oblige me greatly by partaking unsparingly." Reader, did you ever eat a slice of the "bread of covetousness?" I assure you I have, and it is bitter, sour, indigestible, and quite unfit for a healthy stomach. This was not such bread.

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.

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An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

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The Ocean Plague: or, A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel is based upon the diary of Robert Whyte who, in 1847, crossed the Atlantic from Dublin to Quebec in an Irish emigrant ship. His account of the journey provides invaluable eyewitness testimony to the trauma and tragedy that many emigrants had to face en route to their new lives in Canada and America. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Irish in America by John F. Maguire provides a substantial and invaluable account of the extreme difficulties faced by pioneer Irish immigrants in North America during the 19th Century. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.

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