An archive of letters and memoirs – painting a personal and intimate picture of the reality of life for thousands of Irish emigrants to North America – will be available to the general public, thanks to a significant grant announced earlier this month

Imirce, the University of Galway project, was 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.

Imirce – an Irish-language word for migration – has already 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, who donated 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 now 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.

Last week, the Imirce team provided 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.

There are 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.

It also includes a postcard album compiled in the 1920s containing US souvenirs and greeting cards sent to, and collected by, a woman in Lissanode, Co Westmeath.

And there are 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.

Interim Deputy President and Registrar of University of Galway, Professor Becky Whay, described the Imirce project as ‘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,” she said.

President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, Dame Louise Richardson, pointed out that the foundation’s founder, Andrew Carnegie, himself provided 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,” she said.

“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,” she added.

Catriona Cannon, Head of Heritage Collections and Digitisation at University of Galway Library, said that the support of Carnegie Corporation would allow the expansion the Imirce collection through the addition of new material – and the enhancement of 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,” she said.

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.

Pictured: Archive aid…Breandán Mac Suibhne, Professor of Modern Irish History at University of Galway, Dame Louise Richardson, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Daniel Carey, Professor of English at University of Galway.