‘I was born in old Ireland... I do not intend to ever see it’
Letters by Irish emigrants in US unveiled in vast online archive
‘AH NORA, It makes my very heart break when I think right of home. I do be that homesick and lonely.’
Those were the words of a Galway woman writing in 1921 and form part of a vast new online archive.
Thousands of letters, written by Irish emigrants in America to loved ones back home, have been published online for the first time, telling stories of heartbreak, homesickness and loss, as well as hope, triumph and prosperity. Others were more settled. Thomas McCann, writing in October 1894, admitted: ‘I do not care anything at all about going home. I was born in old Ireland but I am quite happy. Sometimes I never think I was in old Ireland at all. I never think of it... for I do not intend ever to see it.’
The vast archive of letters and memoirs uploaded by the University of Galway is the result of half a century of painstaking work from American historian Professor Kerby Miller.
He donated his collection to the university in 2021, on the condition that it would be made publicly available.
The result is a unique archive, Imirce, dating from the late 1600s through to the mid-20th century.
Professor Breandán Mac Suibhne, director of the Acadamh and historian at University of Galway, said: ‘They are the stories of ordinary people, a very long way from home, communicating often with their elderly parents, describing how things had worked out for them, or perhaps not.
‘They are pregnant with emotion, deeply poignant, from people who left home, often never to return, who want to remain in contact with the home place.’
The letters can be searched by family name, place or topic.
For example, a person could search for any letter written by a Murphy, or for an item of particular interest, such as coal mining or domestic service.
Professor Mac Suibhne said: ‘It is very important for scholarship and for professional historians, but it is also very, very important for people interested in genealogy.’
He said anyone in North America who wanted to trace their Irish family history could do so by searching the archive, which he said created a ‘powerful connection’ with the University of Galway.
Ditch-digger Patrick McKeown, writing home in 1904, complained: ‘Old people are very little thought of in this country, not even their own families have any regard for them when they become played out from age and my own is no exception as I could not get one penny from any of mine but what I can earn myself.’
Jane Crowe, writing to her brother in Roscommon in 1959, said: ‘We have too many loved ones in the cemetery here to leave them… We have been here a long time – and it is home to us now.’
Many had mixed feelings. Pádraig Cúndún, from Deerfield, near Utica, New York, wrote to Micheál Ó Glasáin of Baile Macóda parish, Co. Cork, on December 27, 1834.
He said: ‘Considering every circumstance that has come my way up to now, I can’t complain too much about my journey, for I myself, my wife and my children are without want so far, and in good health, thanks be to God, and to take care of them I have a good farm of land (all) paid for.
‘…A day never dawned on me that I thought more sorrowful than the day I left Seanachoill – me and my big poor family – to make our way far across the sea to an unknown land.
‘Nonetheless, the mournful, melancholy day I went through then turned into today’s beautiful, sunny, mirth-filled day.’
Mr Cúndún added that if he could buy all of Seanachoill now, he wouldn’t bring his family back, because life was better in America. However, he ended: ‘Yet if I owned America, there’s no place I know of under the sun I’d rather die than in Ireland.’
Others gave advice to their families back home. Patrick Callaghan, Fort Warren, Boston, Massachusetts, penned a letter to his sister, Bridget Callaghan, of Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford, on March 9, 1882.
‘My dear sister. I received your letter yesterday and was sorry to hear poor Johnny died. Your grief at home must be terrible. I was greatly affected myself although away from home nearly six years. I hope none of the rest of you got it… Bridget never come to America unless you have friends here who can promise you a home and a situation with a good family… You’re a girl. I was a boy who could stand adversity in any form and adapt myself to any difficulties... I tell you truly there’s more destitution in some of those Eastern cities, and far more vice than in Ireland.’
Professor Mac Suibhne said the university has not yet finished its work – it aims to continue to build the archive, and is interested in hearing from anyone who has letters written by emigrants from Irish-speaking districts in the west, who are underrepresented in the archives.
A spokesman for the university said: ‘The collection offers an unparalleled insight into the personal reflections and lives of people as they wrote home to family and friends in Ireland.
‘[It] provides valuable insights into universal themes and individual perspectives influenced by class, religion, gender and political circumstances. The collection is especially rich in the post-famine period from 1850-1950.’
More letters and memoirs will be published over the rest of the year, supported by the Department of Culture and the University of Galway Strategic Fund.
To view the archive, visit Imirce.universityofgalway.ie.
‘Old people are very little thought of’
‘Bridget, never come to America’