2.  Many absent lords used local agents to oversee their land and they were known as middlemen.  Middlemen would rent huge parts of many estates and then rented them out to poor farmers, but many would divide them into smaller sections and raise the rent every year.  In some instances there were families of twelve living in a single room cabin with the families pigs and chickens.

5.  Before the famine only about 5,000 Irish immigrants were coming to the U. S.  Well over half a million were recorded to have immigrated to the U. S. but some believe there were others who landed in Canada and then walked across the boarder.  In 1850 New York was 26% Irish. In April 1852 a news paper printed an article emphasizing the number of Irish immigrants.  In less than 96 hours New York was now home to 12,000 Irish immigrants.  In 1858 The Irish declared they were staying by making plans to build one of the largest churches in New York City called St. Patrick’s cathedral, and it was finished in 1878 after a halt due to the Civil War.  Irish immigrants would stay in cities due to their fondness for close knit communities and because they were the poorest group of immigrants coming to America.  Many Irishmen ran factories, built railroads out west, or worked in a mine, and some were carpenter’s assistants, boat- builders, dock-hands, bartenders or waiters.