IrelandXO
With its sunshine, warm welcomes and abundant supply of pints under €5, I was surprised to learn that - throughout history - South Africa has only attracted a relatively small number of people from Ireland and is considered one of the least explored areas in Irish diaspora!
Perhaps the most notable point in the diaspora is 1820 which saw the first large-scale Irish emigration to South Africa (then the Cape Colony). On 12 February 1820, with the promise of 100 acres of arable land to each adult man selected in terms of the Government Settler Scheme, approximately 360 men, women and children from County Cork, Wicklow and Longford set sail, aboard the Fanny and East Indian ships, on their two and a half months voyage to South Africa.
Divided into four parties, each respectively led by William Parker, Captain Walter Synnot, Captain Thomas Butler and Mnr. John Ingram, the “Clanwilliam Settlers”, arrived on the shores of South Africa on 30 April (the East Indian) and 1 May (the Fanny). While they originally settled in Clanwilliam (Western Cape), by 1821 most of the Settlers (save for Ingram and Synnot) had transferred to the Eastern Cape (to an area then known as Albany).
Although there was no further large-scale emigration from Ireland to South Africa as part of the Government Settlers Scheme - in 1823 John Ingram charted the Barossa, back to Cork, where he led about 350 people to the shores of Cape Town (then the Cape of Good Hope). Ingram’s enthusiasm to bring the Irish to South Africa did not appear to spread as only a small number of people continued to make the voyage.
The numbers remained small during the famine years - with some estimating only about 5000 people making the journey. While a multitude of factors have been attributed to this – with the price of passage to South Africa costing £12 (as opposed to £3 - £4 to the USA or Canada) the voyage would have been inconceivable for many at the time.
Interestingly though, a group of women were sent to South Africa as part of the “Earl Grey Orphan Scheme,” which aimed at alleviating the overcrowding that riddled workhouses in Ireland at the time. While miniscule in comparison to the more than 4000 women sent to Australia – 61 women from the Wexford Workhouses were sent to South Africa and arrived in May 1849 (the first group) and February 1850 (the second group). Dr Ciarán Reilly attributes this low figure to the Cape Convict Crisis which gripped South Africa between 1849 and 1850.
Although only in small numbers, people continued to emigrate from Ireland to South Africa – some finding work in the mines and others fighting in the Irish Regiments during the Anglo Boer Wars. Today the diaspora remains low and there are in fact more South Africans living in Ireland than Irish living in South Africa!