Post 1717 intermittent crop failures and increasing rents on their land began to cause problems in Irish society. When the Irish people’s crops failed, they were greatly affected because it was their main food supply. An unsuccessful linen industry caused many Irish women to lose their occupations. Strong in defending their religion, which was predominantly Catholic, Irish people often had disagreements with one another related to their beliefs. Because of their firm belief in freedom of religion, many Irish ended up killing one another due to conflicts with others over differing beliefs.

Over a sixty-year span of problems like these, roughly 200,000 Irish left the country. Most Irish immigrants from the first waves arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Many came over as indentured servants who would eventually earn their freedom.

In the mid 1840’s, a very infamous event began to take place known world-wide as the “Irish Famine” that lead to a large migration of Irish people. Prior to the potato famine, Irish were fleeing from persecution from the British, who controlled Ireland until December 6, 1921, the day when the Irish gained their independence. The famine was due to an airborne fungus that caused the Irish’s main source of food, potatoes, to shrivel and die. About three-fourths of the Irish harvest was spoiled due to this fungus. This led to the death of about a million people, one-fourth of the Irish population, due to starvation and illness. To make matters worse for the Irish people, a large case of typhus broke out within the country and combined with the starvation, caused the death of roughly 350,000 Irish in the year 1846. Once Europe’s most densely inhabited country in the early 1840’s, Ireland lost this status after this tragic combination of events.