Archive of Irish emigrant letters supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York

Eva Osborne

A University of Galway project archiving the letters and memoirs of Irish emigrants to North America has been awarded a grant of $300,000 (€277,000) from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The project entitled Imirce - an Irish-language word for migration - has created a publicly accessible online digital collection of letters, memoirs and other documents written and composed by Irish people who emigrated to North America from the 1600s through to the 20th century.

The Imirce digital collection was made possible by historian Kerby A. Miller, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Missouri, donating his vast collection of transcripts of Irish emigrant writings to University of Galway’s Library.

The university committed to making these materials available online and continuing the work of collection through regular appeals for additional material.

The University of Galway said the support of Carnegie will enable the expansion of the digital archive, the development of teaching resources and the enhancement of data visualisation, while allowing the project team to conduct research on aspects of the collection.

Among the material received by the project over the past year is:

• 20 letters, rescued from a New York City skip in the 1960s, sent to the Walsh/O'Reilly sisters from Tipperary in the 1930s;
• More than 100 letters from descendants of the Boyle family from Killaneen townland, Co Leitrim, showing the emigration patterns across four generations of the family, beginning in 1893 and concluding in 1994;
• A postcard album compiled in the 1920s containing US souvenirs and greeting cards sent to, and collected by, a woman in Lissanode, Co Westmeath;
• Individual letters showing daring adventures and close calls, including two letters written by an Irishman from Co Offaly who was shipwrecked on Easter Island, and a postcard sent from Cobh in 1912 by an emigrant who narrowly missed the sinking of the Titanic by delaying her journey to New York by one day;
• A memoir detailing the experiences of a Tipperary-born Cunard line purser in the 1950s.

Interim deputy president and registrar of University of Galway, Professor Becky Whay, said: “The Imirce project at University of Galway is an extraordinary gateway to the lives of some of the millions of Irish people who emigrated across the Atlantic - the vast majority of whom had no choice but to seek a new life.

"The support of the Carnegie Corporation is a testament to the uniqueness of this collection and the value which the project places on preserving the first-hand experience of the Irish diaspora.

"Huge credit goes to the project team, the academics and researchers, as well as our Library and Special Collections for bringing those personal stories to life.”

President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, Dame Louise Richardson, said: “The founder of our foundation, Andrew Carnegie, provides one of the great immigration stories. He started life as a poor boy in Scotland before emigrating in 1848 to America, where he began work in a cotton factory before making his fortune in steel.

"He then gave away this fortune through his philanthropy. He never lost touch with his homeland and often wrote about the important role of immigrants in America.

"Today we honor his legacy by supporting the University of Galway’s stewardship in digitizing and preserving the stories of emigrants, making these historical artifacts accessible both to the curious and the scholarly for the benefit of us all.”

The Imirce project is continuing to accept donations of emigrant letters and memoirs. To learn more about the project and how to contribute, visit Imirce.universityofgalway.ie