Mayo County Library has been chosen to join other libraries and museums throughout Europe in a major EU-funded project which aims to promote cross-cultural dialogue and mutual knowledge of European emigration to north America during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
It is hoped that the project, entitled EMILE, funded by the Culture 2000 Programme, will also inform contemporary issues surrounding immigration, emigration and common problems associated with integration.
Participating countries - Sweden, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Ireland - experienced the highest European emigration rates throughout the study period, 1840-1920. However, according to Mayo county librarian Mr Austin Vaughan, "the demographic profile of these emigrants greatly varies from country to country".
"In Sweden, for example, entire families emigrated and then returned as soon as they had accumulated enough money to re-establish a better quality of life at home," Mr Vaughan said.
"In Ireland's case, it was mainly single people and the majority of women went into domestic service. Also, emigration for the Irish during that period was a life sentence. Many of them never returned but continued throughout their lives to send remittances home."
Mayo library staff will be contacting museums, archives and libraries to research and col- late "any material heritage that can be found in letters, photos, songs and told memories".
An initial briefing conference of the participating partners was held earlier this month in Norrkoping, Sweden. They will meet again next February in Trento, Italy, before the project results are produced in an exhibition format, a book, a CD- Rom and a website.
It is hoped that five touring exhibitions, translated into each of the relevant languages, will be hosted simultaneously by the EMILE partnership in each region in July 2005. It is also envisaged that the exhibition will be launched on Ellis Island in 2005.
A sub-project, entitled Young EMILE, has been designed to focus on the experiences of contemporary young immigrants. It will be undertaken by the Italian partners in co-operation with local schools.
Opportunities will be arranged for these European immigrants to compare their experiences with those described in old letters.
Mr Vaughan can be contacted at 094-902 4444 or e-mail: avaughan@MayoCoCo.ie