THE IRISH DIASPORA... history, heritage and culture, and a sense of connection.See the stars?

Calling the Clans

Wandering the web tonight brought me to a site run by the MacAuliffe family from Newmarket. They organise a fantastic rally every four years where clan members meet up from around the world and celebrate their Irish family heritage. (“Newmarket stands in what was once Clanawley, the ancient McAuliffe clan lands”).

This got me to thinking that it might be useful to start a ‘clan’ section on diaspora.ie, where we could provide links back to family or clan sites with the Irish surname as the title of the article. Anyone searching their surname here would be able to find references that would help them with their search.

So, the next entry in the new ‘Clans’ section will be titled MacAuliffe (and its variations) and will have for example a link to the MacAuliffe Clan Home Page.

If you have a family or clan website and would like it to appear here let us know and we’ll include it.

Barack O’Bama

What a journey!

And sure there’s a warm welcome waiting (and a pint on the bar) in County Offaly for you sir.

Slainte and a happy St Patrick’s day.

Live Aid 1985

Simultaneous concerts in London and Pennsylvania, watched in 60 countries by 400 million viewers, and £150 million (approx. $283.6 million) to the Live Aid effort.

The sound might be a bit rough but the sentiment is pure.

Well done Bob, Midge, and everyone else.

Riverdance

The day the world met Riverdance…

The interval during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin and probably the best remembered act of the night!

The Ideas Campaign

One for the Irish at home here…

The Ideas Campaign are looking for suggestions from the guys on the street to help pull the Irish economy back into shape. The campaign runs until 31st March (and has some heavyweight backers) then the organisers will trawl through the suggestions and pull out the gems.

It’s not party political so will be interesting to see if it has the desired impact.
We’ll post on this one again after the campaign has finished and if something solid ensues.

1st April 2009: An update…

Phase 1 – ideas submission – deadline reached and the ideas can be viewed here. The campaign organisers have also been pleasantly surprised by the number of ideas that have come in from the Irish abroad, both in the US, the UK, and even from China.

Phase 2 – review and plan – now in progress:

  • Reviewing and evaluating the ideas logged on the site.
  • Producing an action plan for government, individuals, communities and other groups.
  • Staying in contact and interacting with the many thousands of citizens which have shown an interest in this campaign.
  • Creating further awareness about the campaign, and particularly the ideas which have been received, both in Ireland and internationally.
  • Working with individuals and groups which share a common goal to help Irish economic renewal and recovery.

It looks like some concrete suggestions could begin to surface later in April, and we’ll be back on this one as and when the next thing starts to happen.

Closing Update:
The campaign has drawn to a close with almost 5,300 ideas submitted (25% from abroad), and the advisory committee have drawn up a shortlist of ideas they believe deserve priority. Interestingly one of those is to encourage genealogy tourism by promoting the National Archives and organising clan gatherings.

All the details available at the campaign website.