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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent

‘Longing for home’: letters of Irish emigrants to US reveal 400 years of trials and triumphs

United States Leo Varadkar the University of Galway Ireland
A black and white image of Irish emigrants on board a boat
Irish emigrants on a tender to board a ship sailing to the US in 1903. Photograph: Everett Collection/Shutterstock

In the week that Ireland turns ­everything green and celebrates its diaspora, a new online archive has given voice to the human cost paid by generations of emigrants.

More than 7,000 letters from emigrants to North America spanning four centuries have been collected and digitised, giving poignant insight into the homesickness, tribulations, and occasional triumphs, of those who crossed the Atlantic.

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