Research Guides: Tamiment Library Research & Tools: Archives of Irish America

Overview

The Archives of Irish America is part of the Tamiment Library.

This important collection documents:

the Irish Diaspora in America,
its relationship to the American labor movement, to New York City history, and
to American culture and society in general

Established in 1997 as part of New York University's Division of Libraries and with the support of Glucksman Ireland House, the Archives of Irish America is a repository of primary research materials that assists students, faculty and visiting scholars in evaluating the Irish impact on the history of American social and cultural development, and the evolution over time of a distinctive Irish-American identity.

The collection is strong in:

activities related to immigration issues,
support for Irish Republicanism,
music and other aspects of popular culture, and
Irish Cultural Organizations based in the New York City area

The majority of materials are 20th century and later.

The Archives is home to the Mick Moloney Irish-American Music and Popular Culture Collection, one of the largest collections in the U.S. for the study of Irish-American music and popular culture. Items range from commercial recordings to 19th century postcards and sheet music to field recordings and interviews of artists and activists in the Irish traditional music world in the United States and abroad made or collected by Dr. Moloney.

Search the finding aids using keywords and the call number prefix "AIA" to find archival collections.

Acknowledgements

The Archives of Irish America was made possible by the generosity of the Irish Institute of New York and the Melvin Rauch Foundation, by the wise guidance of the late Dr. Debra Bernhardt of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU, and by the dedicated efforts of Professor Marion R. Casey.

Digital Resources

The following list is comprised of virtual exhibitions and digital collections at New York University and other institutions to enhance, promote, and make accessible scholarship devoted to the Irish Diaspora. If you would like to view any of these materials in our shared reading room, please contact us at tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu!

Oral History Podcasts - Glucksman Ireland House
The podcasts available at the following website are part of a collection of audio documentaries produced by Glucksman Ireland House NYU and accessible at Tamiment Library. These documentaries use excerpt from interviews that are part of the Glucksman ireland House Oral History Collection in the Archives of Irish America, combined with music and narration.
1981 Hunger Strikes: America Reacts (virtual exhibit)
"1981 Hunger Strikes: America Reacts" is a virtual exhibit of primary source materials to mark their twentieth anniversary. Between May and August that year, ten men died of starvation undertaken for political reasons in the Maze Prison (a.k.a. Long Kesh) at Lisburn, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Media reports made these extremely public and controversial deaths, the latest battle in a propaganda war involving the British government and Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland that had been esvalating since 1969. In this struggle, the sympathy of the American public was an important prize."
Legalize the Irish: The Legacy of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement
"Legalize the Irish" is an exhibition drawn from the papers of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement in the Archives of Irish America at New York University. The Irish Immigration Reform Movement (IIRM) was a grassroots organization established in 1987 whose primary objective was to legalize the status of undocumented immigrants from Ireland and 34 other countries adversely affected by America's 1965 Immigration Act."
The Fifth Province: County Societies in Irish America
"This exhibition celebrates the lifetime commitment many Irish men and women made to their heritage through membership in a county society. Just as the mythic Fifth Province is said to have been the place where the four Irish provinces settled disputes, this exhibition also acknowledges the pragmatic efforts towards cooperation made by all county societies and most clearly by the United Irish Counties Association, which helped transcend division since 1904."
Labor & Dignity: James Connolly in America
"James Connolly, one of Ireland's national icons, spent considerable time abroad, particularly in the United States, where he witnessed the successes and failures of labor radicalism and unionization, and of working class conditions resulting from unregulated corporate expansion. Those experiences influenced his actions during the Dublin Lockout of 1913, which was part of a larger transatlantic effort to secure the rights of the working class in the years before World War I."
Ireland America: The Ties That Bind
"This exhibition, entitled "Ireland America: The Ties That Bind," explores aspects of Irish American performance history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly those that illuminate the nexus between public and private, culture and subculture. It explores the home as the incubator of cultural identity and the stage as the platform for ethnic creativity and transmission."
AIA Collection Highlights Flickr - The Mick Moloney Irish-American Music and Popular Culture Collection in the Archives of Irish America
This exhibit presents a sampling of Irish Americana, Printed Ephemera, Field Recordings, Commercial Recordings, Papers, and Photographs. Through a wide variety of materials dating from 1817 to the present, the collection provides unparalleled perspectives on the evolution of Irish-American culture, with particular emphasis on music and its place in Irish-American society.

Mick Moloney Collections

Digitized sheet music is available in Series I of the Mick Moloney Irish-American Music and Popular Culture Irish Americana Collection (AIA.031.004).