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The history of Irish emigration, and the pride of the Emerald Isle
The ruins of Dunamase Castle tower over County Laois in Ireland. It’s been centuries since anyone lived here, but an American tour group has come to imagine what life might have been like when their ancestors called this land home. Visitor Reeda Taylor said, “To know that we’ve had relatives that probably rode horses out here? I mean, that’s exciting. Jump those hedgerows, maybe lived in the castle. Who knows?”
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More than 30 million Americans claim Irish ancestry. Worldwide, more than 70 million people have Irish roots. And yet, the current population of Ireland is only around five million people.
Most countries don’t have museums dedicated to everyone who left that country. But in Ireland’s capital city of Dublin, the EPIC Museum tells the story of Irish emigration – the waves of citizens who moved abroad. “In many ways, the history of Ireland is a history of emigration,” said Catherine Healy, historian in residence at EPIC. “We were the only country in Europe to have more people at the start of the 19th century than at the end.”
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Exhibits at the museum highlight the achievements of those with Irish ancestry – athletes and entertainers, inventors and authors, everyone from Cedric Gibbons (designer of the Oscar statuette) to James Hoban (designer of the White House, the architecture of which was partially inspired by the Georgian architecture that Hoban would have seen in Ireland).
Twenty-three occupants of the White House, from President James Buchanan to President Joe Biden, can claim Irish ancestry. John F. Kennedy was our country’s first Irish-Catholic president. In 2011, President Barack Obama travelled to the Irish village of Moneygall, where his great-great-great-grandfather lived before setting sail for America. “He left during the Great Hunger, as so many Irish did, to seek a new life in the New World,” said Obama.
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The peak of Irish emigration occurred during the famine of the mid-1800s. Over a ten-year period, the failure of the potato crop prompted an estimated quarter of the Irish population to set sail for America. Healey said, “It was a journey of desperation, and for having no ability to have a livelihood in Ireland.”
While the museum tells that story, it also tells the story of cherished Irish cultural exports, from the Irish pub to Irish music.
For an additional fee, it’s possible to book a session with a professional genealogist at the affiliated Irish Family History Centre. Knighton came to learn about his family; his great-grandparents came from Ireland in the early 1900s.
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Genealogist Kayleigh Bealin uncovered lots of fun stories, from a record of dog licenses (“Your ancestors had so many pet dogs!”), to the origin of Creighan, Conor’s great-grandparents’ last name. “The Irish for the name is Ó Chríocháin, which means descendant of Chriochain, which is like a short person,” said Bealin.
“So, I’m related to leprechauns!” exclaimed Knighton.
It turns out there was at least one troublemaker in the family. In 1881 a relative was brought to the petty sessions court for the “crime” of herding two head of cattle onto a public road. Fine: sixpence.
EPIC stands for Every Person Is Connected. You can find Irish links around the world – the museum recently hosted an exhibition on Irish migration to the Caribbean. While St. Patrick’s Day parades around the world are full of people proud of their Irish heritage, Catherine Healy says it’s taken time for the Irish to view emigration as something to celebrate. “For a long time our diaspora has been overlooked,” she said. “There’s been a lot of shame associated with emigration. And that tragedy is still there … we’re not just talking about famine emigration here. We’re also talking about single mothers who had to leave this country, because of the shame associated with having a child outside of marriage.”
EPIC was created to highlight the positive impact of Irish emigration. Its walls feature a quote from Ireland’s former president Mary Robinson: “After all, emigration isn’t just a chronicle of sorrow and regret. It’s also a powerful story of contribution and adaptation.”
Centuries of giant contributions, all coming from a small island.
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Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: George Pozderec.
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Sen. Thom Tillis says “the scope” of Helene damage in North Carolina “is more like Katrina”
As recovery missions and repairs continue in North Carolina more than a week after Hurricane Helene carved a path of devastation through the western part of the state, the state’s Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“This is unlike anything that we’ve seen in this state,” Tillis told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday morning. “We need increased attention. We need to continue to increase the surge of federal resources.”
Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast U.S. after making landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm. Helene brought heavy rain and catastrophic flooding to communities across multiple states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with North Carolina bearing the brunt of the destruction. Officials previously said hundreds of roads in western North Carolina were washed out and inaccessible after the storm, hampering rescue operations, and several highways were blocked by mudslides.
Tillis said Sunday that most roads in the region likely remained closed due to flooding and debris. Water, electricity and other essential services still have not been fully restored.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he said. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Hurricane Katrina left more than 1,000 people dead after it slammed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in August 2005, flooding neighborhoods and destroying infrastructure in and around New Orleans as well as in parts of the surrounding region. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. in the last 50 years, and the costliest storm on record.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene is at least 229, CBS News has confirmed, with at least 116 of those deaths reported in North Carolina alone. Officials have said they expect the death toll to continue to rise as recovery efforts were ongoing, and a spokesperson for the police department in Asheville told CBS News Friday their officers were “actively working 75 cases of missing persons.”
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $100 million in emergency funds for North Carolina to rebuild the roads and bridges damaged by the hurricane.
“We are providing this initial round of funding so there’s no delay getting roads repaired and reopened, and re-establishing critical routes,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration will be with North Carolina every step of the way, and today’s emergency funding to help get transportation networks back up and running safely will be followed by additional federal resources.”
President Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months.
With North Carolina leaders working with a number of relief agencies to deal with the aftermath of the storm, Tillis urged federal officials to ramp up the resources being funneled into the state’s hardest-hit areas. The senator also addressed a surge in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the Biden Administration’s disaster response, which have been fueled by Republican political figures like former President Donald Trump.
Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the November presidential election, were diverting funds from Federal Emergency Management Agency that would support the relief effort in North Carolina toward initiatives for immigrants. He also said baselessly that the administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, were withholding funds because many communities that were hit hardest are predominantly Republican. Elon Musk has shared false claims about FEMA, too.
“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said of those claims. “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
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