Book review: Fleeing Famine and oppression for the land of opportunity

The discovery of the Emigrant Savings Bank's highly detailed records shines a light on the lives of Irish people in the 19th century

Irish emigrants on board a ship bound for the US at the time of the Great Famine. The lives of ordinary Irish people of the period had been left all but undocumented due to fires in the US and Ireland. Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty 

• Plentiful Country – The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York 
• Tyler Anbinder
• Bonnier Books