Karl Marx in New York Tribune 1853
Source: Marx and Engels on Ireland, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1971;
First Published: in The New-York Daily Tribune, August 12, 1853;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.
Like the world in general, we are assured that Ireland in particular is becoming a paradise for the labourer, in consequence of famine and exodus. Why then, if wages really are so high in Ireland, is it that Irish labourers are flocking in such masses over to England to settle permanently on this side of the “pond,”[41] while they formerly used to return after every harvest? If the social amelioration of the Irish people is making such progress, how is it that, on the other hand, insanity has made such terrific progress among, them since 1847, and especially since 1851? Look at the following data from “the Sixth Report on the District Criminal and Private Lunatic Asylums in Ireland”:
| 1851 | Sum total of admissions in Lunatic Asylums. | 2,584 | (1,301 males and 1,283 females.) |
| 1852 | 2,662 | (1,276 males and 1,386 females.) | |
| March, 1853 | 2,870 | (1,447 males and 1,423 females.) |
And this is the same country in which the celebrated Swift, the founder of the first Lunatic Asylum in Ireland,[42] doubted whether 90 madmen could be found.
41. Marx means the Irish Sea.
42. Jonathan Swift bequeathed his entire fortune to the building of a lunatic asylum in Dublin. It was opened in 1757.