Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate Dublin’s civic elite and their policy and reactions towards migrants to the city in the seventeenth century. There will be some discussion of the city’s patricians’ reactions to migration in general but, the thesis’ focus will be on those migrants who were of special concern to the governors of the metropolitan city. The newcomers to Dublin who will be investigated include both short and long distance migrants, from the poorest to the wealthiest and from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. The patriciate’s reception of these new arrivals in the city will be assessed with regard to the social and economic conditions in the city. There will also be an examination of how, the evolving political and religious circumstances of the era influenced the Dublin patricians response to immigrants. Above all, the attitude and actions of the civic elite towards newcomers will be examined with regard to the city’s politics and the patricians’ desire to preserve the long-accumulated civic privileges.