If Moriarty Hated the Bloody Sassenach, I mean English so Much, Why Would I Have Him Go to London?

Let me start with a helpful note from JimMcCool at irishinbritain.com

On 3/24/06, jim mccool <coolmccool@gmail.com> wrote:

Glad to be of help, Michael.

" The first and largest Irish colony in London could be found in St Giles in the Fields. But by the early nineteenth century Irish migrants could be found living in all parts of the capital with the exception of the City within the walls. Beyond St Giles, recognisable Irish communities could be found in Whitechapel and Saffron Hill, Poplar and Southwark, and perhaps most notoriously in the Calmel Buildings off Orchard Street in Marylebone."

from http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/history/communities/irish.html

There were also very substantial Irish populations in later 19c and from early 20c in Elephant and Castle [Southwark] and most famously, Camden Town and Kilburn.

Fares:

"For the very poorest, Britain became the final destination; those who could not afford even the lower fares across the Atlantic paid the few pence for deck passage across the Irish Sea. Conditions on such crossings were appalling. Deck passengers had a lower priority than baggage or livestock, and up to 2000 people could be crowded onto an open deck in all weather, clinging to each other to avoid being washed overboard.

In 1830-35, 200,000 Irish people made such crossings, and by 1841 over 400,000 lived permanently in Britain, mostly in the largest cities, Glasgow, London, Manchester, and Liverpool itself."

from http://website.lineone.net/~cannonfhs/irishemi.htm

and http://www.uhb.fr/Langues/Cei/lpret3.htm contains much interesting material.

hth!

Good luck with the book.

Jim McCool
IrishinBritain.com

In other words, for reasons you will see in my book, the preferred destinations, Boston or New York were out of the question. This gives you some idea of which Irish emigrants would go to Britain. They would not have been changing citizenship, they were already British subjects. The American equivilent would be a Puerto Rican moving to New York.

As far as my character is concerned, he was forced to move into the "devils den," and he is going to make them pay for it.