When I started working with the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami library I was surprised to learn about the Irish who had settled in Cuba. It was then that I realized I knew very little about the Irish diaspora even though the roots of my own family is partly Irish. While Argentina’s role in the Irish diaspora is not so widely known, the majority of the more than 40,000 Irish who came to Argentina in the second-half of the 19th century were from the Irish midlands.
Their journey took them first to the port at Liverpool where they board ships destined for Argentina. Most settled as sheep farmers in the area between Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. There’s even a small amount of literature influenced by these Argentine-Irish settlements.
More on the Irish in Argentina in later postings.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:43 am
I found this interesting to read. I am a Hispanic Studies major at the Univeristy of Southern Maine and am about as Irish as they come. I have always felt like an outsider in the Latino community, but am comforted by the idea of my people settling there a few hundred years ago!