A documented subsistence crisis, unexplained; according to a spacific report with regard to scenic Connemara, County Galway around 1880, brought a response from two churchmen who were reported to have advocated sending a segment of the population to north America. Special committees were formed and according to a documented source, families who had no relatives in the u.s., and according to the report had a high percentage of workers, were sent to Canada. They were said to have been at the mercy of colonial authorities when they arrived, and may have been sent to work on the railways.