SNIPPET: Researchers interested in Irish emigration might look to D. H. AKENSON's book "The Irish Diaspora: A Primer" (1993) and David FITZPATRICK's "Irish Emigration, 1801-1921," (1984), in addition to many others. Per Mr. AKENSON: Emigration as a concept in Irish historical writing and social criticism has a set of connotations and contextual limitations different from those which generally apply to European writing. In the world literature, migration, which means out-migration, is joined to in-migration (or immigration) to cover the general phenomenon of human movement, usually permanent, from one region or nation to another. The conceptual apparatus is not, for the most part, emotionally loaded and, therefore, dispassionate 'laws' (or, at least, tendencies) for worldwide migration have been articulated by historians and social observers. 'Emigration' from Ireland, however, departs from this world-based conceptual structure in several ways. First, emigration is rarely seen as being part of a general migration process in which in-migration is recognized as being as important as out-migration. Secondly, emigration is usually treated as a singularly Irish phenomenon and not as part of larger processes which, in fact, affected all of Western Europe during the same period. Third, emigration in much (though not all) of the literature is treated as something tragic, or as something for which the nation should be ashamed. A synthetic layer of 'exile' is cast over the entire phenomenon, even though it is clear that the majority of those who emigrated from Ireland did so as part of a set of conscious decisions which, in most cases, improved their life-chances. Historians of emigration in Ireland have yet to resolve two central issues of debate. the first is the extent to which emigrants from Ireland were selected. That is, did the best leave, or the dregs, and what does the answer mean for understanding the Irish society which the emigrants left behind? The second question is whether or not the large-scale migration hurt Ireland economically. On the one hand, economic historians point out the surplus labourers were siphoned off, thus reducing the number of economically dependent individuals. A counter-argument suggests that the individuals who left were those most likely to have been the recipients of social investment (especially primary education) and that their emigration effectively exported to other nations the Irish social capital invested in them. Although emigration from Ireland began in the pre-Christian era, it became a large-scale phenomenon only in the age of the first English empire, with considerable (but untallied) numbers leaving Ireland during the 17th and 18th centuries, sometimes for the Continent (the European mainland), more often for the British colonies in the western hemisphere. Mass emigration, however, began only at the close of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Although sizeable emigration continues to the present day, the era of mass emigration from Ireland was from 1815 to the beginning of the First World War. A reasonable estimate is that between 1801 and 1921 at least 8 million Irish men, women, and children permanently left the country. Thus, the claim made by President Mary ROBINSON, in December 1990, that there are over all the world 70 million persons who claim as part of their cultural heritage at least partial Irish descent, is not excessive. As for destinations, a simple formulation is that, prior to the Great Famine (1845-9) Canada was the most common destination for Irish emigrants; between the Famine and the First World War, it was the United States of America; thereafter, it was Great Britain. Among the most notable characteristics of Irish emigration from 1815 to the present day is that (uniquely among European nations) Irish women were as large a part of the emigrant stream as were Irish men. This had implications both for Ireland (unlike most European countries, a surplus of single females did not develop) and for the new homelands: the numbers of women were sufficiently balanced to make it possible for Irish-born persons to marry within their own ethnic group. Per S. J. CONNOLLY - Australia received only about 5 per cent of the emigrants who left Ireland during the 19th century. These, however, made up nearly a quarter of all immigrants during that period. A proportion of Irish arrivals came by transportation, many of them being joined subsequently by wives and children. Of the remainder, a majority received some form of government assistance towards the cost of a long and expensive journey. The largest groups of emigrants came from a group of south-midland counties (Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick, Clare) and from south and central Ulster (Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone). Irish immigration peaked during the gold rush of the 1850s and fell off sharply after the 1880s. Reliance on assisted passage meant that settlement in Australia was determined less by pressures in Ireland than by the needs of the colony: there was, in particular, no great surge of migrants during the Great Famine. Closer official regulation may also help to explain why Irish settlers in Australia were more evenly distributed, both geographically and in terms of occupation and social status, than was initially the case in the United States and elsewhere. In addition their status as the second largest ethnic group (after the English) made them less vulnerable to discrimination. The legend of bushranger Ned KELLY (1854-80), along with overemphasis on transportation as a route to Australia, has encouraged a stereotype of outcast rebelliousness. Mid-19th-century statistics reveal that Irishmen were indeed over-represented among convicted criminals, but also within the police force. Most of the Irish born who achieved prominence in the early decades of Australian history were from the Protestant middle and upper classes, like Sir Richard BOURKE, governor of New South Wales 1831-8. However, Michael DWYER, Gavan DUFFY, and Daniel MANNIX, in their different ways, provided examples of what was to become an increasingly well-established pattern of pragmatic assimilation. In politics, the Irish of Australia strongly supported home rule for Ireland, but showed less enthusiasm for the separatist republicanism that later displaced it.