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Appendix 1: Newfoundland - A story of Irish Emigration

Map and information are drawn from "Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape"[8].

Irish emigration to North America goes back at least 300 years. Newfoundland was discovered by the Europeans in 1497 and throughout the 16th and 17th centuries it became an important source for whale and cod fisheries. European and English fishermen sailed to the fisheries in springtime and returned to Europe at the end of the season. The Irish began to settle in the Newfoundland area after 1700. The vast majority of the Irish in Newfoundland came from the Waterford city hinterland. Waterford was the primary port for embarkation, with New Ross and Youghal as secondary ports.

Traditional traders from Devon in England called into Waterford for salt and servants en route to Newfoundland during the 18th century. From about 1750 Irish merchants traded directly with Newfoundland. Until about 1790 the majority of migrants worked for a few seasons in Newfoundland and then returned home, but after 1790 this changed to permanent emigration.

The tidal water area of the Nore and Suir rivers (which includes Piltown and surrounding villages) facilitated an outward looking perspective and this encouraged farm boys and artisans to look towards emigration to Newfoundland. An Irish Franciscan priest James O’Donnell set up a Catholic parish in St Johns in 1785, and the clergy normally came from Ireland. A Rev. Michael Fleming was parish priest in Carrick-on-Suir in the early 19th century; he later became Bishop of Newfoundland and used unemployed stonemasons from the Carrick-on-Suir area to build the cathedral at St Johns.

The first member of the Fahy family that we have recorded in Newfoundland is David Fahy (born 1817) – a grand uncle of Johanna. David was married in Owning on 14th April 1845 and he must have emigrated shortly afterwards. His first child Mary was born in St Johns, Newfoundland on 13th May 1846.