Newfoundland Emigrant Trail Project
“…the affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood…these are the ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron”
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Click here for further information
Imbued in the Celtic/Irish physic is a strong concept of family and Tir Grá – a sense and love of place which is trans-generational; this is strengthened by distance, immigration and emigration.
The theme of the Newfoundland: Talamh an Éisc Emigrant Trail is as it reads ‘Emigration’.
The Newfoundland: Talamh an Éisc Emigrant Trail is being developed by Dunhill Ecopark. The project emanated from Festival of the Sea an Ireland/Newfoundland & Labrador collaborative event which alternates on an annual basis. The festival is designed to promote the cultural, historical and community ties between Ireland and Newfoundland/Labrador to facilitate the exchange of ideas in each region through collaboration in areas such as sustainable development in coastal communities, fisheries, tourism, heritage, culture etc.
The leading expert involved in this project is Professor John Mannion, a retired academic of Memorial University, St. Johns, Newfoundland. Professor Mannion is a geographer and has spent his academic career researching the linkages between Surnames/Genealogy and Geography in Ireland and Newfoundland/Labrador. Dunhill Ecopark Heritage and Tourism R & D Manager travelled to Newfoundland in March 2008 on a research trip to work with Professor John and Maura Mannion.
The Newfoundland Emigrant Trail is based on a geographical guide researched by Professor John Mannion of Memorial University of Newfoundland tracing migration from Ireland to Newfoundland from 1700–1850. It includes a list of over 1000 surnames traced by parish, town, or county of origin in southeast Ireland. The Newfoundland Emigrant Trail illustrates the villages and towns from where the greatest number of emigrants travelled to Newfoundland-Labrador, Canada (see Emigrant Trail Map, which is at an early stage of development). When the research on names and locations in the Waterford, Kilkenny and Wexford is to hand, the final draft will be prepared.
The title of the project ‘Talamh an Éisc’ is gaelic and can be interpreted as ‘Land of the Fish’ or ‘the Fishing Grounds’, because in the eighteenth and nineteenth century merchants and fisherman from the South East Region of Ireland were travelling regularly to Newfoundland for the fishing season. One contemporary account tells of "25 sailing vessels waiting at Passage East, in Waterford Harbour, for the tide to Newfoundland". Although the majority of these early migrants returned to Ireland for the winter, later in the century some began to "overwinter" in Newfoundland. Click here for further information
More information about this project will be posted on our website over the coming months.
