A touch of Ireland: migrants and migrations in and to Ostend, Bruges and Dunkirk in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Parmentier, J. (2015). A touch of Ireland: migrants and migrations in and to Ostend, Bruges and Dunkirk in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Int .J. Marit. Hist. 27(4): 662-679. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0843871415610280
In: International Journal of Maritime History. Maritime Studies Research Unit: St. John's. ISSN 0843-8714; e-ISSN 2052-7756, more
Mercantile activities, privateering and fishing in the ports of Ostend, Bruges and Dunkirk during the 17th and 18th centuries were often in the hands of migrants. Irish entrepreneurs, no longer welcome in their occupied home country, searched for opportunities elsewhere in maritime trade and, during war-time, in privateering. In both enterprises they proved very successful and developed international mercantile networks. In the wake of this emerging business, sailors from both sides of the French-Austrian border settled in these ports or migrated between Ostend, Bruges and Dunkirk to wherever the economic climate seemed most promising. In this article we analyse these waves of migration which created distinctive communities in Ostend, Bruges and Dunkirk, connecting together the economic and social lives of these ports for more than two centuries.
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