British colonial devastation made Ireland a primary labor source for British factories

Evidence

As Western Europeans went overseas in the (often vain) attempt to escape proletarianization, workers from peripheral areas, like Ireland, Poland, and Italy, were drawn in as replacement labor. Britain’s new factory towns quickly absorbed labor surpluses from the countryside. Atrocious working and living conditions led to poor health, high infant mortality, and short life expectancy. Natural increase was inadequate to meet labor needs, so Britain’s closest colony, Ireland, became a labor source. The devastation of Irish peasant agriculture and domestic industry under British rule had led to widespread poverty and periodic famines. By 1851 there were over 700,000 Irish in Britain - 3 percent of the population of England and Wales and 7 percent of the population of Scotland (Jackson, 1963). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3852

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Britain shifted Ireland from racial toward national oppression after 1801. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 136; The Penal Laws made Irish Catholics an oppressed race in Ireland. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 127