From Ulster to New Zealand

Here are a few sources of information on the numbers and nature of Ulster migration to New Zealand.

'In the nineteenth century, Ireland sent a fifth or more of all Europeans who went to New Zealand. With the Scots, they contributed almost half of the total settler population, and Ulster yielded the largest provincial Irish stream.'

'Ulster provided a very significant part of the Irish inflow, and it became more significant as time progressed. By the eve of the Great War those from Ulster comprised about 56% of Irish immigrants. Between a fifth and a quarter of the Ulster settlers were Catholic; and among the Protestants the numbers of Presbyterians increased over time. The increasing proportion of the Irish deriving from Ulster in part reflected the preference for Protestants among New Zealand immigration authorities.'

'Ties between New Zealand and Ulster are close, according to Dr Billy Kelly of the University’s Institute of Ulster-Scots Studies, based at the Magee campus. “A considerable number of New Zealand’s Irish migrants, some say up to half, have come from Ulster. “While it has been assumed that the majority Protestants, Ulster Scots who were quickly absorbed into the ‘British’ settler population, thereby losing their cultural identity, the reality is arguably more complex. “Just how far Ulster/New Zealand migration constituted a transfer of Ulster Scots culture to the New World, as well as the often ignored contributions of Ulster settlers from other cultural and religious groups, is an import, but as yet under-explored field of study.”'