Irish in Cardiff

[pippylong]

Hi, I'm new and have been researching my family tree for about a year.  Does anyone have any information on the Irish in Cardiff? many thanks

[Scrumhalf]

Where to start ?   There are hundreds of families with Irish ancestors after the emigration of the Irish to work in the docks steel and coalindustries in S wales in the mid 1800s
I am a Cardiff  "Sullivan" but cannot trace my Irish roots for lack of precise information proir to 1861.
If you Google "Mary Sullivan" you will find she has a major input ti Irish families in Cardiff who settled in the Newtown and Adamsdown area of the old city.

[aghadowey]

As Scrumhalf has mentioned there were so many Irish that settled in Cardiff- I researched Driscoll/O'Driscoll and Clifford families from County Cork that both went to Cardiff. Still haven't an exact place in Cork for either family but went the Driscolls went to U.S. the children born in Wales were listed in U.S. census as born in 'Cardiff, Ireland' which shows they that although they were born in Cardiff they still considered themselves Irish.

[Jillie42]

Does anyone know if the Irish might have stopped off in Wales to live and work for a while before carrying on to London?

[aghadowey]

Entirely possible. Think that perhaps Cardiff was a major entry point for people from Cork and that part of Ireland (many people maybe just settled wherever the boats landed and then more relatives and neighbours arrived and settled near them.

[Tricia_2]

Yes. me too!
Lots of Irish ancestors in South Wales!

That's one of the reasons for the founding of the RC church in Treforest ~ now St Dyfrigs.

My counties definitely include Cork, and possibly Wexford, Waterford & Killarney.

There are some very interesting items in 'The Green Dragon: a magazine from the Irish community in Cardiff, Wales':

http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/gdragon.html

Irish Communities in Cardiff, 1841 - 1891
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/ircomscard.html
Cardiff and the Great Famine, Part 1.
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/cargfamine.html
Cardiff and the Great Famine, Part 2.
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/cargfamine2.html
The Irish are in Town: Port Talbot. Part 1
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/ptalbot.html
The Irish are in Town: Port Talbot. Part 2
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/ptalbot2.html
Cardiff: An Incomplete History of an Irish Family
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/sweeneyfam.html
The Irish in Cardiff
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/irincard.html
The Irish Famine in Skibbereen and Cardiff.
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/cardskibb.html
‘Little Ireland’-R.I.P.
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/litirl.html
Irish Immigration and Integration in Newport in the Nineteenth Century
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/newport.html
Wales and Ireland in the Late Nineteenth Century
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/walesirl.html
O’Leary, Paul. Immigration and Integration: The Irish in Wales, 1798 – 1922.
http://www.ballinagree.freeservers.com/irinwales.html

Also:
Book Review
Irish Migrants in Modern Wales ~ O'Leary, Paul, editor
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/163757.ctl

A Brief History of Newtown
http://www.newtown-cardiff.org.uk/page1.htm
http://www.newtown-cardiff.org.uk/oldguest.htm
http://www.newtown-cardiff.org.uk/page6.htm

Real Cardiff ~ Newtown ~ 'the vanished local little Ireland'
http://www.peterfinch.co.uk/newtown.htm


What drove the Irish to settle in Wales, and how did they fare?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/migration/pages/ireland.shtml

There is an Irish Famine  Memorial in Cathays Cemetery

[Scrumhalf]

Yes the Irish did pass hrough wales when looking for my F/Tree located the Madden family first in Pembroke census occupation given as beggars/fruit sellers 10years later the same family appeared in London still as Fruit sellers.
Many of the Irish actually came to Wales as "ballast" in the holds of the now empty cargo boats returning to Wales after carrying farming and building produce to Ireland. Many were dumped overboard to swim ashore, so no official documents were shown but fee paying cargo to the sea captains. 
Merthyr also has a huge Irish community working in the Dowlais Iron & Steel works   

[Scrumhalf]

Tricia 2  What a great web site
www.ballingtree.freeserve.com
 A wealth of Irish/Welsh ancestrial information.
I have ancestors at Merthyr cardiff and aberavon so it made fascinating reading   Thank you for yyour research

[Tricia_2]

Hi Scrumhalf ~ yes, I was really pleased when I first found it ~ and I did have trouble finding it again, so it's best to bookmark it.

I also had Irish ancestors in Dowlais / Merthyr.