What Happened to the Catholics in Ireland?

The only people that own land in ireland are the protestant ascendancy. So what happened is landlords were just like, oke, then turn all my land into grazing for cattle. And if a catholic steps on to that land, he can be shot. In stepped the white boys - secret society of irish catholic peasants who got together and would go on raids at night time. They'd dress in white, and they'd steal horses. The famine wasn't very kind to the white boys. You don't have time for secret societies and burning down the houses of landlords when there's literally no food in the country. A lot of em found themselves in mining communities in americ