I need help finding a book -

[SheilaT]

6. But there was never the massive migration of English

out of England as there was of Irish out of Ireland. Although you're pretty much right about how badly the English underclass was treated, it never came close to what amounted to a near genocide during the Potato Famine. There were more jobs available in England, even in the worst of times. Sort of like today there are still jobs available, just not enough and certainly not as many "good" jobs (however you choose to define good) as there ought to be. England, once the Industrial Revolution got underway, had an industrial base. Ireland, never. The English never even permitted much in the way of roads to be built between major cities, and almost no trains.

The last time I was in Ireland was in 1989, and I know things have changed a lot, but it was very noticeable that even major highways were only two lanes wide, and in all of our driving around the country in the two weeks we were there, I noticed never crossing a train track.