Tag Archives: irish diaspora

A lecture in Kilrush on Tuesday will examine how it has recently become possible to use DNA to identify where in West Clare ancestors of people who live in different parts of the world are from. The Kilrush and District Historical Society’s November lecture is entitled Reconstructing West Clare Family Histories Using DNA. It will be delivered by the society’s PRO, Paddy Waldron, in Teach Ceoil. “In recent years, it has become possible and affordable to use DNA comparisons to break down brick walls in ancestral research,” Paddy Waldron explained. “This talk will begin by briefly outlining the different inheritance paths of different components of DNA. “Y-DNA, for example, can shed light on the origins of Clare surnames, while comparing autosomal DNA has helped members of the Irish diaspora, from Sandy Hook to California to New Zealand, to identify the precise townlands in West Clare from which their mystery ancestors emigrated,” he added. Paddy Waldron has long been an avid …

The Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Jimmy Deenihan is to launch a new round of funding under the Local Diaspora Engagement Fund, in addition to the creation of a Local Diaspora Strategy Development Fund in 2016.  The formal announcement will be made at Government Buildings in Dublin tomorrow (Wednesday). This latest initiative will make up to €10,000 available for each individual local authority around the country to invest in the development of their strategies for diaspora engagement. Both of these initiatives build on the objectives of Global Irish – Ireland’s Diaspora Policy which seeks to facilitate a wide range of activity at national and local level designed to develop two-way diaspora engagement.  

More than a thousand people from one East Clare village passed through Ellis Island on their way to a new life in the United States, according to research undertaken on the parish. An online exhibition exploring the Irish emigration experience to America was launched in Tulla at the weekend and focuses on the town’s emigrants and diaspora. The community was chosen as the pilot parish for a research project undertaken by the nationwide organisation, Ireland Reaching Out, with the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as part of the Government’s Emigrant Support Programme. The results of the research and the findings of the study were launched in Tulla Courthouse last Friday. As well as the online resource, a curated exhibition featuring eight emigrants was hosted as part of the Tulla Reaching Out Weekend of Welcomes, an annual festival that celebrates local heritage and welcomes the diaspora back into the parish. Epic Journeys Ellis Island brings to life …