´What makes an emigrant? What are the pressures which drive a young man or woman from the townland of his birth and his family pathetically equipped mentally, to try and make a living in an alien mileau…Every man has his own story, every girl her own reason.´[i]
John Healy Continue reading
“Certainly for all our assertions of patriotic love of country we have repeatedly proven that, given free access to any country with a standard of living higher than our own, we will readily relocate”
Professor Liam Ryan Continue reading
At the turn of the nineteenth century, seasonal migration of agricultural workers from Ireland to the United Kingdom was practiced predominantly by communities found on western coast of Ireland.
Whether the members of the Addergoole Fourteen partook in seasonal migration is not the aim of this article. This article is merely highlighting that the practice was prevalent, and practiced by communities in the west Ireland, especially in County Mayo. Continue reading
Lahardane Village 1910 - Leonard Collection
An open letter from the parish priest of Lahardane, the Rev.J.J.Kelly, was printed in the Connaught Telegraph directly a few months after the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It is important as it indicates the dire predicament that families of those who had perished.
‘These poor young people left their native homes full of hope that they would soon be able to relieve the distress of their parents, who have tired in vain to support themselves and their families on small uneconomic holdings – mostly reclaimed bog. The conditions of the parents of those who went down with the Titanic from this district is now better imagined than described’
Connaught Telegraph, 1 June 1912 Continue reading
Titanic Third Class ticket
“The Titanic when she was built was meant to make history. It never occurred to anyone – not even to her builders or her owners that she was destined to make history so suddenly and so certainly”
Belfast Evening Telegraph, 16 April 1912
On the evening of the 15 April 1912 the Belfast Evening Telegraph broke the news of the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic. The loss of eleven parishioners from Addergoole, though not straight away known, was not just a human tragedy but it also brought to the fore fears that would be reminiscent of times past. The loss of eleven members of the group called the Addergoole Fourteen plunged many families into economic uncertainty. Continue reading
