Wolverhampton has a long history of Irish immigration going back the past few hundred years. Irish migrants initially came to the Midlands to seek employment as seasonal farm hands. They were specifically attracted to the area in and around Wolverhampton as it was recognised as having strong Catholic sympathies, so much so it was know as Little Italy. There was an influx of Irish labourers after the Napoleonic wars, many settled in Wolverhampton as the housing was cheap. An area known as Caribee Island, at the time a run down area in central Wolverhampton, became home to the vast majority of Irish immigrants. The largest arrival of Irish immigrants to England was between 1845 and 1850, during the Great Famine. The population of Ireland was dilapidated with 3 million less people, one million died and the other two were forced to leave. The Irish population in Wolverhampton grew further and in 1851 it was estimated that there were 6,000 Irish in a population of a little less than 50,000, this also had a knock-on effect on the rise of Catholicism. The Irish in Wolverhampton have had a contentious history. In the late 1840s there were clashes between Irish immigrants and the police and in 1858 and 1867 there were disturbances due to a series of anti-Catholic lectures in the town.
There were limited opportunities educationally for Catholic children but this changed with the founding of a school in 1849. By 1878 the number of schools had increased to five and they were able to teach 1,648 children. According to the census of 1871, the population of Wolverhampton had grown to 68,291, of these there were over 12,000 Irish. In 1991 the census returns show that there were 2,099 people that were born in Ireland living in Wolverhampton and the last census of 2001 shows that 1% of Wolverhampton were born in Ireland.
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