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The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies & Balch Online Resources
The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, a specialized library, archive, and museum in Philadelphia, collected Irish American materials primarily Delaware Valley in emphasis. It merged into the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and a guide is available at: http://www2.hsp.org/collections/Balch%20manuscript_guide/html/irish.html
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Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park
Based in Omagh, Co. Tyrone on Mellon family land, the Centre’s research library has created the Emigration Database, a computerised collection of 30,000 primary source documents on Irish emigration to North America (USA & Canada) in the 18th and 19th centuries. It contains a variety of original material including emigrant letters, newspaper articles, shipping advertisements, passenger lists, official government reports, family papers and extracts from books and periodicals. The project is on-going with documents being added on a regular basis. It is a vital research resource for historians, teachers, students and genealogists with an interest in Irish-America. The Database can be accessed in the Library of the Centre for Emigration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park and in the Local Studies Departments of the Education and Library Boards in Armagh, Ballymena, Ballynahinch, Belfast, Enniskillen, Londonderry and Omagh. Plans are underway to make it accessible via the web.
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Irish Centre for Migration Studies, University College, Cork
This new research unit at UCC promotes the study of historical and contemporary migration to and from Ireland within a comparative international framework using new information technologies. Its most recent undertaking an on-line sound archive called “Voices and Choices” which includes the oral history series “Breaking the Silence: Staying at Home in an Emigrant Society.”
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Irish Diaspora Studies
An interdisciplinary website that contains useful debates, study guides and reviews, including the first bibliography of the Irish in South America.
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Library of Congress, American Memory Collections
A major digital library containing many interesting items related to Irish America, e.g. Eamon De Valera’s three minute St. Patrick’s Day 1919 message to the American people available as a downloadable RealAudio or wav file.
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Linen Hall Library
The oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Ireland. It is the leading centre for Irish and local studies in the North of Ireland. Its major holdings include 250,000 items in the Northern Ireland Political Collection, the definitive archive of the recent troubles, documenting the activities and views of all parties to the conflict, from paramilitaries to government. The literature ranges from the most ephemeral – stickers, leaflets, posters and Christmas cards – to more substantial collections of books, pamphlets, manifestos, photographs and audio-visual items. The enormous range of periodicals includes both single issues and complete runs of enduring journals of record. This material is complemented by a complete press cuttings service spanning the entire period of the “troubles.”
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New York Public Library
NYPL’s wide-ranging collections include the records of the Emigrant Savings Bank, housed in the Manuscript and Archives Division. The finding aid is available online at http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/emigrant.pdf.
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Boston College, Research Guide: Irish Studies
A guide to Irish Studies resources available at the John J. Burns Library, including general research tools, subject guides, and links to manuscript and music collections. Materials relate primarily to Ireland rather than Irish America.
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Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota
An international resource on American immigration and ethnic history. The IHRC collects, preserves, and makes available archival and published resources documenting immigration and ethnicity on a national scope. These materials are particularly rich for ethnic groups that originated in eastern, central, and southern Europe and the Near East – those who came to this country during the great wave of migration that gained momentum in the 1880s and peaked in the first decades of this century.
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Irish American Archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society
Started in 1999, this is a collection documenting Irish people, organizations and institutions in the greater Cleveland area of northeastern Ohio. Materials relating to politics, religion, culture, business, labor, education, fraternal organizations, and charities, and individual life experiences are being sought.
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Archive of the Irish in Britain, University of North London
Founded in 1984, this unique collection of documents, audio and video recordings, books, photographs and ephemera catalogues the history of the Irish in Britain from the late nineteenth century to the present day.