No country in Europe has been as affected by emigration over the last two centuries as Ireland has, with approximately ten million people having left the island since 1800. In fact, every generation of Irish society in the last two hundred years has been touched by extensive emigration. Conversely, between 2012 and 2022, 401,433 people arrived to live in Ireland from abroad. As of 2023, over a million people born somewhere else had made their homes in Ireland. The great melting pot is not in the American past – it’s in the Irish present.
In this lecture, Dr. Stack will trace the changing patterns of emigration and how the diaspora has adapted to life in America. She will also look at how Ireland has coped with the exodus of her people, and how for the first time in her history, Ireland is receiving more people than have left.
Dr. Stack was, until recently, the Executive Director of the Museum here in Albany. She is currently the Executive Director of the American Irish Historical Society in NYC & we are delighted to welcome her back for this lecture!