“We’ll have a half day in the bothy making boxty for the boys”. An analysis of the seasonal migration of female agricultural labourers from Achill Island to the Scottish potato harvest, 1890-1900

Abstract
Severe levels of poverty dictated that all family members contributed to household income on Achill Island during the 1890s. The tradition of seasonal migration to Scotland was well established at the time and the migratory earnings of teenage girls were most significant. During periods of intense financial pressure, to boost the income of the home, more girls were forced to join the ‘tattie squads’. 1894 was such a year. Twenty-four young women, some of them as young as fourteen, were drowned in the month of June, when their overcrowded hooker capsized at Westport. The incident caused much public protest about the injustice of a custom which forced juvenile girls to travel to Scotland, in order to augment income which could not be acquired from the holdings of the island.
This dissertation explores why the tradition had become so established as the norm, in the lives of young island women, what the reaction to the tragedy was and the effect of the unfortunate incident on the extent of the custom in subsequent years. Sources include Baseline reports of the Congested Districts’ Board; Minutes of the Westport Board of Guardians; Relief of Distress Papers; local newspapers; manuscripts of the Department of Irish Folklore and British Parliamentary Papers, Agricultural Statistics Ireland.
The intervention of the Congested Districts’ Board to relieve poor economic conditions and to reduce the reliance of the islanders on seasonal migration was unsuccessful. The schemes of the Board were not presented as attractive alternatives to the girls. The income of young women was necessary for the maintenance of a subsistence economy on the island, this is evident when the amount of their earnings is examined. Female children were a valuable resource to the Achill family.
The girls had a natural inclination for outdoor work and no work opportunities were available locally. Seasonal migration was the earning strategy families relied on in the late nineteenth century, as no suitable alternative to the annual exodus was created. Due to the lack of improvement in socio-economic standards at home, the security of travelling as a member of a familiar squad and the ongoing scope for employment in Scotland, the scale of the tradition was not curtailed in any way during the decade.