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Abstract
Irish Catholic planters in the Caribbean:
Montserrat and St. Croix 1747-1775
Orla
Power (NUI,
Galway)
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A
tremendous insight into the position and importance of
Ireland
within the Atlantic World system is to be gained through the
study of the Irish in the
Caribbean
. While Irish nationalist history has tended to highlight
the condition of the oppressed Irish indentured servant,
many Irish settlers experienced the
Caribbean
from a different perspective. For instance, Irish Catholics
were actively involved in the sugar and rum industry, owned
plantations and traded in African slaves - all while
maintaining links with the Catholic Church in Ireland,
Southern Europe and America. Accordingly, Irish –
Caribbean
commercial and social networks were truly global as they
defied political and linguistic boundaries and established a
geographically disparate, yet cohesive community. The
importance of kinship as a means of developing and
sustaining the infrastructure of the Atlantic World has been
well documented. However, other means of maintaining trust
within the erratic world of transatlantic commerce can also
be identified. While not based on blood ties, the close-knit
nature of Montserratian society continued to bind the
business ventures of ex-patriot planters and merchants who
left the British island to pursue economic and social
advancement elsewhere. This paper will focus on a group of
Irish Catholic planters, who relocated from Montserrat in
the 1740s to the socially tolerant, Danish
island
of
St.Croix
(modern day USVI). In exploring the ways in which this Irish
community interacted with each other, unfamiliar
environments, and with the outside world, it is hoped to
contribute new perspectives regarding the colonising roll of
Irish people within the Caribbean, together with an insight
into the nature of “Irishness” and Irish - Creole
identity.
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