The sugar merchant who attempted to take hordes of poor Irish families to a fresh life in South Africa

Two hundred years ago, a Cork City sugar merchant attempted to take hordes of poor Irish families to a fresh life in a land of plenty, in South Africa. But things didn’t quite work out as planned, explains Robert Hume

During the 19th century, government emigration schemes reduced the number of poor at home and offered a labour force to the colonies. Enticed by prospects abroad, thousands of people signed up to try their luck in the USA, Canada, and Australia, and, to a lesser extent, in New Zealand and South Africa.