Irish Canadians
The first waves of Irish immigrants took place between 1763 and 1880. when ten thousand Irish immigrants arrived on the Island. From 1800 to 1850, "10,000 immigrants from every county in Ireland" had settled in Prince Edward Island and represented 25% of the Island population by 1850.
History of Irish Americans in Boston
Most of the early arrivals were Presbyterians from Ulster who came seeking relief from high rents, repressive taxes, and other pressures. Wary of Boston's Anglo-Saxon Puritans, who were hostile to the Irish, many moved to the outer fringes of the Bay Colony and founded towns such as Bangor and Belfast in Maine, and Londonderry and Derry in New Hampshire. The few Irish Catholics who settled in the Boston area had to convert or hide their identity, since Catholicism was outlawed. Other Irish immigrants may have come to Boston involuntarily, after being kidnapped by pirates. The "Boston News-Letter" announced an auction of Irish boys in 1730, and women convicts deported from Belfast were sold in Boston in 1749. Conflation of such immigrants, indentures, and convicts has given rise to the Irish slaves myth.