In our city of Toronto, there are many Irish nationals who came between the years of 1940 and 1999 for a better life, a different life. Some knew they would never return to Ireland, some believed they would only stay a few years. Yet, here it is 2007, and there are thousands who comprise a very dynamic and vital part of our Canadian mosaic.

We are embarking on an odyssey to collect each of those stories and preserve them for future generations to know and understand what the life of an immigrant was and is in Canada. What it meant for an Irish person to leave the Island and travel across the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life. How with each decade immigrants came for different reasons and from different counties in Ireland.

This is the time to reflect on the strength of the people who came to Canada, some with only a few dollars and the name of a “friend of a friend” as a contact in Toronto. There are so many questions and so many variations of experiences in the stories of the Irish arriving in Canada. This project seems bountiful both in the possibilities of interesting people to discover and the richness in which the Irish can tell their story.
Tell you story!