During and after the famine years thousands of people emigrated from Ireland in search of a better life. They went to various different countries, for example Liverpool and Glasgow. Many people also emigrated to America if they were lucky enough to be able to afford the fare.

Most of the ships the emigrants travelled on were old wooden sailing ships and took at least 4 weeks to travel to America and even up to 7 weeks in bad weather. The ships were very over crowded with not enough food and clean water to go round. Some of the passengers had already caught a fever called typhus before getting on the ships and this was passed on to many passengers. Lots of people died during the journey.