March Imirce archive of Irish emigrant letters supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York

A University of Galway project archiving the letters and memoirs of Irish emigrants to North America has been awarded a grant of $300,000 from Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic foundation devoted to reducing political polarization through support for education, democracy, and peace.

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 20^th 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 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.

On Thursday March 13^th, the Imirce team will give an overview of the material received by the project over the past year.

Among these are:

• 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

Professor Becky Whay, Interim Deputy President and Registrar of University of Galway, 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.”

Dame Louise Richardson, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, 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.”

Daniel Carey, Professor of English at University of Galway and Secretary of the Royal Irish Academy, said: “Carnegie Corporation’s support for the Imirce project is a breakthrough moment. Its encouragement will enable us not only to provide new material for our many users, but also to enhance the database with new visual tools, alongside resources for teachers and students to interpret this important material.”

Speaking about Imirce, Breandán Mac Suibhne, Professor of Modern Irish History, said:  “The letters and memoirs being made accessible via the Imirce database allow scholars of Irish and North American history to connect, across time, with generations of emigrants—the better to understand what was involved in leaving one home to make another. And for the descendants of those emigrants, it is an opportunity to reconnect, across the broad Atlantic, with the home that they left behind. It is particularly apposite that Imirce is located at the University of Galway, an institution in the very part Ireland that, from the time of the Great Famine, was most deeply defined by emigration to the United States and Canada.”

 Catriona Cannon, Head of Heritage Collections and Digitisation at University of Galway Library, said: “The support of Carnegie Corporation of New York will allow us to both expand the Imirce digital collection through the addition of new material and to enhance users’ experience through improved visualisations of the data. The growth of Imirce further enhances the many ways our collections illustrate the long and varied history of cultural, social, and political exchange between North America and Ireland in particular, while also providing an invaluable record of the impact and experience of the Irish overseas. The University of Galway Library is delighted to have the opportunity to continue this work to preserve and facilitate meaningful research into this material.”

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

Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace.

Carnegie Corporation of New York awards grants totalling approximately $200 million a year in the areas of education, democracy, and peace.

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