During the 80 or more years that the Penal Laws were in force. England destroyed practically every industry. The great woolen and linen trades of Ulster. owned and operated by the Ulster "Loyalists" were not spared and thousands of Presbyterians were forced to emigrate to the Colonies. It is perhaps only retributive justice that history records the fact that these exiled Ulstermen were eager and willing to join with the other Catholic exiled Irishmen to compose about 40 percent of George Washingtons army which achieved American independence when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. The American Revolution helped the Irish cause in many ways.
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emigrate