'Longing for home': letters of Irish emigrants to US reveal 400 years of trials and triumphs

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/17/longing-for-home-letters-of-irish-emigrants-to-us-reveal-400-years-of-trials-and-triumphs

‘Longing for home’: letters of Irish emigrants to US reveal 400 years of trials and triumphs

A collection of more than 7,000 letters will form a publicly accessible digital archive that offers a window to the past

Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent
Sun 17 Mar 2024 04.00 EDT

In the week that Ireland turns ­everything green and celebrates its diaspora, a new online archive has given voice to the human cost paid by generations of emigrants.

More than 7,000 letters from emigrants to North America spanning four centuries have been collected and digitised, giving poignant insight into the homesickness, tribulations, and occasional triumphs, of those who crossed the Atlantic. They tell of Pennsylvania coal­mines, Minnesota winters, Boston slums, and the desperate struggle to adapt and survive – and to make peace with the likelihood of never seeing home again.

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The letters reveal struggles and heartache, said the historian. “A common theme is the longing for home and the sadness that they probably will never be able to return home. Another is the obligation to send money back, which often they can barely afford, and also to pay for the passage of younger brothers and sisters.”

Letters sent home – a key plot device in Colm Tóibín’s diaspora novel Brooklyn, later made into a film starring Saoirse Ronan – also showed hope and pride, said Miller. “Many immigrants were happy to be in America. They felt they had more opportunity to be independent – that’s a word they often used. For instance, owning their own farm or shop, not having to take their hats off in the presence of the landlord, or obey the wishes of a priest.”

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