emmigration legacies???

clairefontaine

I'm curious to know why there are no memorials or museums dedicated to all the Irish who have left their homes over the centuries?

In the US you have memorials and museums for immigrants, walls of names who came through Ellis island, display cases of the conditions they left and articles they brought with them. You have oral history libraries and it's even in some history curricula.

It is such a sad and important part of Irish history and instead of their stupid THE GATHERING antics, why don't they establish something with real meaning for their diaspora as well as the current generations who will eventually emmigrate and become part of their diaspora?

Grayson

The US celebrates emigrants who went there. We could have a memorial for the vikings and for the english settlers who left their homes to brave the wilds of ireland and attempt to tame it

hardCopy

There's a memorial on the north quays in Dublin to famine folk who left by boat.

P. Breathnach

http://www.cobhheritage.com/

Duckworth_Luas

I remember going into a church in San Francisco, the guidebook said the church was worth looking at as it was one of the oldest surviving buildings in California. It was nothing special so I went for a wander in the graveyard next door.

Imagine my surprise to see all these familiar Irish names on the gravestones. People born in Roscommon, Clare, Galway and Mayo in the 1840s. I was speechless.

clairefontaine

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

I remember going into a church in San Francisco, the guidebook said the church was worth looking at as it was one of the oldest surviving buildings in California. It was nothing special so I went for a wander in the graveyard next door.

Imagine my surprise to see all these familiar Irish names on the gravestones. People born in Roscommon, Clare, Galway and Mayo in the 1840s. I was speechless.

See, I would think Ireland would have a wall of names too! ANd a considerably sized museum.

I was talking to a couple of Irish people who said they don't learn that much about emmigration in school, had no idea of the conditions of the ships or that people were thrown overboard into the ocean if they caught cholera or the treatment they received once they docked.

Or anything about the 1950s.

It's weird.

hardCopy

clairefontaine wrote: »

See, I would think Ireland would have a wall of names too!

I was talking to a couple of Irish people who said they don't learn that much about emmigration in school, had no idea of the conditions of the ships or that people were thrown overboard into the ocean if they caught cholera or the treatment they received once they docked.

Or anything about the 1950s.

It's weird.

We learnt a lot about the famine in primary school, maybe they just weren't paying attention.

If I remember rightly, the junior cert history syllabus only runs up to around 1916 so most people wouldn't learn much about the 50's unless they did leaving cert history.

JRant

The JeAni Johnston famine ship is on the North wall quay and well worth a visit to.

There are also plenty of memorials shattered around the country, although we could do more.

P. Breathnach

http://www.dunbrody.com/

Rented Mule

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186627-i19611209-Westport_County_Mayo_Western_Ireland.html

The National Famine Monument is as close as I can think of a memorial for emigrants. I wonder what they would chose to use to honor those who left in this generation. A monument to Bertie's Bank Account ?

clairefontaine

It all seems tokenistic.

It would be nice to see something like a museum dedicated to emmigration through the ages, from the famine to the present day.

P. Breathnach

clairefontaine wrote: »

It all seems tokenistic.

Memorials, of their nature, are tokenistic. I don't accept with the idea you seem to have that they are trivial tokens.

It would be nice to see something like a museum dedicated to emmigration through the ages, from the famine to the present day.

One museum? People here have pointed to a number of monuments and exhibitions which commemorate the emigration experience, particularly the experience at the time of the Great Famine. You seem to be dismissing them. Here's another: http://www.nmni.com/uafp.

The problem with commemorating emigration is that the largest single wave was at the time of the Great Famine, and it is difficult to ask people to focus on emigration and ignore the death toll in Ireland due to hunger and disease. And the deaths in Ireland were a bigger deal, because the majority of the emigrants escaped death.

stefan idiot jones

Rented Mule wrote: »

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186627-i19611209-Westport_County_Mayo_Western_Ireland.html

The National Famine Monument is as close as I can think of a memorial for emigrants. I wonder what they would chose to use to honor those who left in this generation. A monument to Bertie's Bank Account ?

How can you have a monument to something that didn't exist ?