Migration & Emigration from West Donegal

6ú - 8ú Bealtaine / May 2022. Ionad Pobail Dhún Lúiche

The Poisoned Glen — Scéal an Imirceora

Donegal and in particular West Donegal has seen its fair share of seasonal migration workers and emigrants leave their homeland to eke out a living during the 19th & 20th centuries. For some this would be the first part of their migratory story. Some returned home with their much needed earnings while for others it was the means to bring them further afield in search of better work, better conditions and a better lifestyle This practice is embedded in the psyche of most Donegal families and is a large part of their past culture, history and heritage.
The event will involve a mix of academic speakers who will give the history and background to this migratory occurrence and the impacts this had on those involved, the rural Communities, the Irish Language and the Economy. There will be first hand accounts from those who left the area, each one having his or her own unique story to tell and each having a shared history. This event will capture the many stories relating to the people, their work / social experiences, the places they migrated to, the type of work they carried out and how they were treated by their employers and indeed the towns and villages they went to. It will also capture first hand accounts from those who are still around to recount this practice and ensuring these stories are documented and kept for future generations. The event will incorporate a local walk, traditional Irish music, song & dance and exhibition.

An Clár

7:00 Registration & Cuppa Tae
7:30 “Seasonal Agricultural Labour Migration and North West Ireland”. Dr Paddy Fitzgerald
8:15 ““Emigration from Donegal to the anthracite coal mining region of Pennsylvania” Thomas Mackaman, King's College, Pennsylvania
9:00 Ar an Choigríoch in Albain – Scéal Néill Uí Dhubhthaigh (1899-1992) - Micheál Ó Domhnaill
9:30 Ceol leis ‘An Crann Óg’
10:00 Registration & Cúpa Tae
10:30 “An Bád go hAlbain” - Imirce Shéasúrach as na Trí Paróistí”.
Na himpleachtaí a bhí ag an imirce shéasúrach ar shaol eacnamaíochta agus cultúrtha an cheantair. Donnchadh Ó Baoill
11:15 A Journey of a Tattie Howking in the 1950’s, my story by Annie O’Donnell
12:00 Local stories – A panel of local people talk about their journey to find work and education out of the west.
1:00 Lunch. Soup, Tea/coffee & Sandwiches
2:00 A local emigrants’ story – From Kildrum to The Gold Mines of Australia
2:45 How to research your family history
3:30 Practical session – bring your own ipad/laptop
How to research the family history
11:30 Registration an Ionad Pobail
12:00 Walk to Glentornan. Guide Conal O’Donnell
A guided walk to Glentornan where you will hear the story of the families who once lived in the village. Depart Ionad Pobail @ 12:00 to arrive in Glentornan @ 1:00pm.
3.1 km each way
2:30 Lunch. Soup, Tea/coffee & Sandwiches in Ionad Pobail

Cur in Áirithe / Book Now

Guest Speakers

Thomas Mackaman

Professor Thomas Mackaman is the author of several books and a wide range of articles and specialises in topic of migration to the US, and in particular to the coal fields of Pennsylvania. He has a special interest in Co Donegal and the people who migrated from here to work in the coalfields across the Atlantic.
His publications include:
New Immigrants and the Radicalization of American Labor, 1914–1924, McFarland, 2016.
“Labor: From Replaceable Cogs to Corporate Citizens,” in Tim Dayton and Mark W. Van Wienen, A History of American Literature and Culture of the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
“Our Lives, Our Thoughts and Our Allegiance: New Immigrants and American Industry in 1914”In Retrospection & Respect: The 1913-1914 Mining/Labor Strike Symposium of 2014
Dr Paddy Fitzgerald

Dr Paddy Fitzgerald is Head of Research & Development at the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, Co.Tyrone
This talk will explore the phenomenon of temporary and seasonal migration which came to play such a central role in the rural society of the North-western Irish counties during the course of the nineteenth century.
Breandán Mac Suibhne

Breandán Mac Suibhne is a historian of society and culture in modern Ireland, with a particular interest in west Ulster. Among his publications are The End of Outrage (Oxford UP, 2017) and Subjects Lacking Words? The Gray Zone of the Great Famine (Cork UP, 2017). He is editor of John Gamble, Society and Manners in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Field Day, 2011). He has also edited, with Enda Delaney, Ireland's Great Famine and Popular Politics (Routledge, 2016), and, with David Dickson, Hugh Dorian, The Outer Edge of Ulster (Lilliput, 2000; University of Notre Dame Press, 2001); he was a founding editor, with critic Seamus Deane, of Field Day Review (2005–), a journal of political and literary culture. Mac Suibhne is a professor at NUI Galway, where he leads Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge.
Micheál Ó Domhnaill

Is as an Charraig i nGaoth Dobhair ó dhúchas do Mhícheál. Tá sé ag obair d’Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge faoi láthair agus tá sé lonnaithe san ionad atá acu ansin ar an Screabán i nGaoth Dobhair. Bíonn sé i mbun teagaisc ó cheann go ceann na bliana ar chúrsaí éagsúla de chuid an Acadaimh ar a n-áirítear cúrsaí sa Ghaeilge, cúrsaí san aistriúchán agus cúrsaí sa chultúr dúchais. Ina chuid oibre, bíonn sé ag plé fosta le cúrsaí cartlannaíochta. Tá spéis ar leith aige i gcúrsaí béaloidis agus sa stair áitiúil.
Donnchadh Ó Baoill

Fear do bhunadh Rann na Feirste i nGaeltacht Thír Chonaill Donnchadh Ó Baoill. Tá céim aige i nGaeilge ó Choláiste na hOllscoile, BÁC, agus iarchéim MA i nGaeilge ó Ollscoil na Ríona, Béal Feirste. Diomaite do thréimhse ag teagasc Gaeilge, tá bunús a shaoil oibre caite aige ag obair le hÚdarás na Gaeltachta. Tá suim ar leith i stair agus cultúr a chúige féin agus tá cur i láthair déanta aige ar fud na cúige agus níos faide i gcéin ar na hábhair sin. Tá sé mar bhall do Choimisiún Logainmneacha na hÉireann. Tá suim ar leith aige sa teanga agus an gaol dlisteanach atá idir í agus an timpeallacht.
Annie O'Donnell

Annie O Donnell, hails from The Rosses and now resides in Leeds. She is the Author of several books about her journey through migration and emigration. One of her books ‘the Tattie Howker’ tells of the hardship endured by countless seasonal migrant workers as they picked their way through the tattie fields of Scotland. Annie recalls the journey she took heading to the Tattie Howking in the 1950’s and will read excerpts from her book. She has written four books in total 1. There and Then, 2. The Tattie Howker, 3. Donegal Sunset, 4. Moving on.

glentornan — ***Siúlóid go Glentornan***

Dé Domhnaigh / Sunday 8ú Bealtaine/May 2022
Join us on a walk to Glentornan and hear about the families who lived here. Conal O'Donnell hails from Dunlewey. His mother and her people were from the village of Glentornan and he spent much of his youth playing in the fields and visiting the families there. Join Conal on a walk from the Ionad Pobail, across the Cuing bridge to the village and hear the stories of the families who lived here.

**A Long Farewell’ – Emigration of Donegal Women 1845-1950**

**Donegal County Museum Exhibition**

This exhibition charts the story of Donegal women’s emigration to countries such as Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia; from the horror of the coffin ships of the famine years to the post-war immigration to Great Britain. It shows how the emigration of Donegal women changed over the century from the original main destinations of the US, Australia and New Zealand, to the 1940s when approximately three out of every four Irish emigrants were destined for Britain and one out of eight for the United States. With few opportunities for women at home, emigration provided not just employment but a chance for education and social freedom.

Seasonal Migration.

Anne O’Dowd. Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture

Irish emigration has long been a subject of study, though the short-term seasonal and temporary movement of workers has not received the same attention. This is surprising considering the great number of agricultural workers involved during the heyday of seasonal migration in the nineteenth century and the interchange of ideas, values, and customs that occurred.

Although there is some evidence that Irish farm laborers were already traveling to Britain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, their numbers increased only with population pressures in Ireland during the second half of the eighteenth century. With the establishment of the first regular passenger steamship service between Britain and Ireland in 1815, the one serious obstacle to reaching places where work was available—the expense of the journey—was removed. Already by the 1830s, by conservative estimate there were 35,000–40,000 Irish people working on a temporary basis in Britain, and numbers continued to increase to

more than double this figure by the 1860s. In many areas of Ireland, especially in Counties Mayo and Donegal, people were dependent on earnings from seasonal work well into the opening decades of the twentieth century. The introduction of "new" agricultural crops to Britain in the late nineteenth century fostered a mutual dependence: Britain needed seasonal laborers to plant and lift potatoes, hoe turnips, pick fruit and hops, and ready crops for transport to the local market. In Scotland the extension of the railway resulted in the rapid growth of the potato industry after the 1860s, providing plenty of seasonal employment for Irish migrants. The Irish had worked as reapers of corn in the Scottish lowlands during the Napoleonic war years and had become general agricultural laborers, working from seed-time to crop gathering, by the last quarter of the nineteenth century. They were still working as "tattie hokers" in the Scottish potato fields in the 1940s and 1950s.

Equally significant were the travels of seasonal migrants within Ireland, predominantly from western areas to counties in the east. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century poets mention these spailpíní, as the workers were generally known. Their numbers were greatest during the difficult years of the 1820s and 1830s. On the whole, the seasonal workers were people who had close ties to the land: small farmers, cottiers, agricultural laborers, and generally poor people with family responsibilities and no means of earning cash at home. Women began to participate as workers to an important degree only in the middle of the nineteenth century, in the Scottish potato fields. Although there were few women migrant workers before this time, women were nevertheless an essential part of the movement in other ways: they provided support for the men by traveling with them; they begged for food and money to keep themselves and their children alive until the men returned home, and they undertook and organized essential farm work back in Ireland, thereby maintaining the small holding of land as the family home.