CELEBRATION

The Irish capacity for fun and celebration is legendary. Events such as the Milwaukee Irish Fest or the Copenhagen Irish Festival bring together thousands of people eager to explore and engage with Irish music, food and culture every year, while St Patrick’s Day has truly become a global phenomenon, with events taking place everywhere from the streets of Dublin to the halls of the White House.

More than 70 million people around the world claim links to the island of Ireland and St Patrick’s Day is a truly unique opportunity to reconnect them with their heritage. For generations, it has been an important moment of celebration for London and its Irish community. Home to the largest Irish diaspora group in the world, London hosts hundreds of Irish events, right across the city. Centrepieces of the festivities are the St Patrick’s events at the iconic London Irish Centre in Camden, and the Mayor of London’s St Patrick’s Parade and Festival in

Further afield, Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening sees a host of famous buildings and sites around the world light up in green each year, to mark St Patrick’s Day. The initiative, which began in 2010 with just the Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland going green, has gone from strength to strength – bringing tourism to the heart of St Patrick’s Day celebrations everywhere.

We may connect in different ways, but the psychological associations – love, longing, guilt, community – remain constant. Emigrants often remark on the great emotional toll associated with emigration, and how, despite the passage of time and evolution of technology, the desire for connection with ‘home’ endures. These connections may be timeless, but they are also ever-evolving, as is our understanding of what it means to be Irish.

Why people have left, what they have achieved in their new homes, the sense of Irish identity that has followed them wherever they have gone and how that identity changes – these are all important considerations we must reflect on when speaking of the Irish diaspora today, and how the connections between the 70 million-strong global Irish community will continue to grow into the future.

The Irish people are renowned for their fond farewell, and no more so than when they’re bidding goodbye to loved ones departing home, leaving behind a life they once knew.

For a small island, Ireland has had a big impact. Millions of departures over hundreds of years have left a lasting legacy, and even as we say goodbye to friends and loved ones, we embrace our new global networks. Every person is connected, and migration has truly made that a reality.

As visitors depart from the museum they will hopefully have arrived at what it truly means to be Irish with a deeper understanding of our culture and people.