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Introduction and Methodology
- University of Massachusetts Press
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xv Introduction and Methodology { The irish have a long past, and yet it is paradoxical that so many IrishAmericans possess only a short history which stops at the Atlantic in the nineteenth century, a history abridged by the trauma of uprooting and relocation that was their forebears’ exodus from their native land in famine time or earlier. Family Interrupted: they don’t know where they came from. For the descendants of the Famine Irish, the history may have been rather purposefully lost when the emigrants hugged to themselves in silence the sorrowful experiences of why and how they left Ireland, as if ignoring them would erase them but remembering would dishonor their native land. For Irish immigrants of the time, the daily grind, early deaths, and geographic dispersal eroded extended family relationships over generations . The consequence of these circumstances and of British policy and practices is that many people do not know where to call home. But descendants, more than ever, are pursuing the answer. The resurgence of Irish culture and back-to-the-roots genealogical fervor are reestablishing the bonds of kin and place that were almost lost during the immigrant generation’s difficult transplantation and adaptation or the British government’s disruptions and dismissals in famine time. This book is the story of one neighborhood, its people forced out of Ireland’s ravaged County Roscommon during the Great Potato Famine. It looks at where the inhabitants came from and where they went, insofar as answers can be deduced from family knowledge and records, public documents , and local and national history. The search recognizes the mystery of how they got to America, and it honors and seeks to understand the decisions made and the individual choices involved. It nods to serendipity but also explores the visceral role of political, economic, and social factors. It has been possible, with greater or lesser effort, to retrieve some knowledge of our past, of what was lost over generations, and at least find that home territory where we can walk in the footprints that our forebears left in the townlands (parts of a parish) of Ireland. Precisely how much can be regained will vary with the particulars of each family and will depend on the written and oral legacies handed down locally, as well xvi Introduction and Methodology as the ingenuity and creativity of those seeking to document the story. In some luckier cases—even though the repositories of public records in Ireland have imposed an enormous hurdle by drawing a veil over earlier times—it is possible to travel into the eighteenth century, or earlier, and actually make the link to particular families. And over the years, technology has given new muscle to the efforts, interest has grown, and governmental , civic, and commercial bodies have made, renewed, or expanded their commitments to helping, be it for altruism or for profit. Even for those who can connect only with their ancestral home place, the search may still reward, since the stories of local events, the local history, may yield a profound understanding of the forces that over time created the Irish diaspora—made us and remade both our countries: the one we know and its ancestor, the one we came from. I first learned about Robert Scally’s book The End of Hidden Ireland in conversation after a lecture in 1995 at the Famine Museum in Strokestown, County Roscommon. I had heard the name Ballykilcline previously but did not know then that it was part of Kilglass Parish, where my own Riley family came from, or that it might hold special meaning for my own family story. I had been researching the Rileys, a maternal line, for years. When I returned to the United States, I ordered Scally’s book and was surprised to learn that my immigrants’ parents’ surnames—Riley and Colligan—were both present in Ballykilcline, and that the townland bordered others which by then I knew were associated with my family. Several years later, one of my first Internet searches was on the name Ballykilcline. I was astonished when I found the weeks-old website created by Maureen McDermott Humphreys of Washington state and Peter Hanley of Virginia. Soon, we organized as the Ballykilcline Society to search for other descendants and to foster knowledge of the local history. The idea was that we could help each other, that numbers and commitment would empower such an undertaking. We persuaded the Associated Press to do a feature story about Ballykilcline...