We are a people.

This, nearly two centuries on from the largest wave of Irish emigration in history, may strike some as a bit sentimental. For others, it might raise questions: what does it mean to be a people? Are we a people because we say we are? Do we say that we are?

Many, the editor of this project included, assert that we are a people. We are a people with many stories, woven over the centuries as, for better or worse, we became American. Many historians and archivists have done good and important work in documenting the history of the Irish in this country, and still it is just the tip of the iceberg.

What does it mean to be Irish in America today? Are we tethered, in any way, to those ancestors who carried our history, language, and culture across the great ocean? What are our commitments in relation to Irish identity? The questions are endless, and yet so are the opportunities for the reclamation of knowledge that is under real threat of obscurity and loss.

The Irish in America Oral History Project, founded in 2024, seeks to ask some of the most pressing questions relating to Irish American life, both in the past and the present. It is maintained by Jordan Kennedy Rice, an Irish American whose ancestors survived An Gorta Mór and settled outside of Boston (with a few landing in Nova Scotia). She is an aspiring Gaeilgeoir and member of the Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir, the only permanent Gaeltacht outside of Ireland.

Jordan has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and is pursuing independent Irish language study as well as discerning graduate level study. She is married to Ned, whose grandparents came to Michigan from Counties Monaghan and Limerick, respectively. Their shared commitment to their heritage is a source of joy for them both.

Jordan plans to conduct audio and video interviews with elders, immigrants, descendants, leadership of cultural organizations, historians, archivists, and many more. Her core belief about this work as that in order to continue to be a people, unique and contiguous, we must make the case to those who come next not only that we exist, as a people, but that our histories and stories are good, beautiful, and worth handing on.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh for visiting this space. If you would like to take part in the project, have questions, or just want to chat, you can email Jordan at jkyrice@proton.me.