The real or perceived possibility of becoming landowners in the Río de la Plata region (Argentina and Uruguay), and consequently joining the South American landed gentry, was the most important factor attracting thousands of young men to the area.

Many Irish newcomers declared themselves to be ingleses, as all of Ireland at the time was still part of the United Kingdom, and others were simply assumed to be British by the authorities.

However, further research conducted by Patrick MacKenna shows that Coghlan, Korol and Sabato did not consider return migration and re-migration, which was significant after the 1880s, as well as the high mortality ratios for the Irish immigrants in certain periods before the 1869 census (e.g. during the 1868 cholera outbreak in the Buenos Aires province).

[citation needed] For the nineteenth century, one out of every two Irish emigrants to Argentina went back to Ireland or re-migrated to the United States, Canada, Australia and other destinations.

The southernmost tip of Chile and Argentina, in places like the city of Punta Arenas and also the Falkland Islands, were other destinations for Irish and Scottish immigrants which are frequently underestimated.

Those in urban areas worked as labourers, merchants, employees, artisans, teachers, professionals and, increasingly after the 1860s and especially for women, as domestic servants.

[citation needed] In Curumalal, Buenos Aires, and Venado Tuerto, Santa Fe, Eduardo Casey helped populate the agriculturally barren provinces, inviting more Irish and other immigrants to Argentina to work for him.

Irish-Argentine agents hired by the Buenos Aires provincial government actively worked in Ireland and were paid by the state and the shipping companies.

[7] Following the Dresden Affair, in 1889, Archbishop of Cashel, Thomas Croke wrote: "I most solemnly conjure my poorer countrymen, as they value their happiness hereafter, never to set foot on the Argentine Republic however tempted to do so they may be by offers of a passage or an assurance of comfortable homes.

[9] The earliest reference to hurling in Argentina dates from the late 1880s in the ranching town of Mercedes, Buenos Aires, a major center of the Irish-Argentine community.

On 17 August 1900, Bulfin printed the rules and a diagram of a hurling pitch in The Southern Cross, the official newspaper of the Argentina's Irish community.

In addition, native born Irish-Argentines assimilated far quicker than in other places, Hispanicising their names and frequently marrying outside the community, something unheard of in the past.

In 1980 the Aer Lingus Hurling Club conducted a three-week tour of the country and played matches at several locations, including the Christian Brothers school at Boulogne, Buenos Aires.