From Rocky Shores to the Rocky Mountains: The Irish in Montana
Early photograph of Park Street, Butte, Montana
Early photograph of Park Street, Butte, Montana
The exhibition is a retrospective glimpse into the lives of the Irish in Montana from their initial arrival in the US until the present using materials from archival and oral collections. It reflects the uniqueness of the Irish experience in America, telling the story of Irish Immigration to America, westward to the lush and mineral rich mountains and prairies of Montana. The influence of the Irish in Montana is far-reaching. Irish values of family, faith, and community have shaped Montana’s agricultural, railroad, and industrial cities since the early 20th century.
Situated high in the US Rockies, the mining town of Butte, is an Irish-American stronghold. Sometimes known as Ireland’s fifth province, it has a history that especially tells the story of the special connection between Ireland and the United States of America. During Famine times, many Irish found their home there, arriving in Butte by way of Nevada’s Comstock Lode, Pennsylvania’s coalfields, and the Michigan copper mines. At the turn of the last century the Irish made up a higher percentage in Butte than they did in any other American city, and they continue to be firmly embedded in the community and community life there. There is also an historic connection between Cork and Montana in that 1,500 miners from the Beara Peninsula migrated to Montana in the early 20th Century following the failure of the copper mines in Allihies. Over a quarter of the population in Montana is of Irish descent. The state of Montana is rich in natural resources, has a population of less than 1m and enjoys national influence disproportionate to its size.
The exhibition will include excerpts from the manuscript collection of the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, oral histories from The Gathering: Collected Oral Histories of the Irish in Montana, literature, and research of the Irish in Montana. These stories illuminate the compelling nature of the westward immigration of the Irish.
The exhibit is organized around four themes: The Journey, Work & Labor, Women & Children, and Church & Club. Each element is both independently strong and interrelated. The arrangement itself reflects the Irish experience in Montana and how they integrated themselves into a new Irish American community.
More than 17% of Butte’s population was of Irish decent in 1920 and greater than 6% of Montana’s population was from Ireland, their influence on the culture of Butte and Montana is irrefutable. The Irish story can be read in every social gathering, church activity, political campaign and ethnic event in Butte. The sheer number of Irish made them influential and they infiltrated every other ethnic group and brought them into their fold. The collections documenting the Irish in Butte are some of the most highly used collections in Butte-Silver Bowe Archives holdings.
The Exhibit team will be travelling to Ireland in July. Ellen Crain (Archivist, BSB Archives), Ciara Ryan (University of Montana), and Bernadette Sweeney (Gathering Project) will be available to provide presentations on the exhibit topics and/or their research and projects associated with the exhibit. Ellen Crain will be staying several weeks in Cork to visit the Beara Peninsula and exchange information, ephemera and intellectual material with the Mining Museum in Allihies.
The exhibition launch will be followed by a public presentation at 2pm in the Council Room, North Wing, UCC by Ellen Crain, Director Butte-Silver Bow Archives, Bernadette Sweeney, The Gathering Project and Ciara Ryan, UCC, introducing the exhibition and elaborating on the Montana Ireland Connection. All are welcome to attend the launch and presentation.
The exhibition will continue in UCC Library until the end of September 2012 as part of A Montana Ireland Exhibition July 2012 to May of 2013. UCC Library Opening times are Monday – Friday 8.30am - 4.15pm, Saturday 10.00am -12.45pm.
The UCC/Montana Connection
University College Cork (UCC) has had an institutional relationship with the University of Montana (UM) since 2004. By now University of Montana is one of UCC’s key strategic partners in the US. The alliance is characterized by an unusually broad range of disciplinary connections, as well as the diverse types of collaboration including student internships, staff exchange, and joint curriculum development. A delegation from UCC, led by the President, Dr Michael Murphy, recently visited the University of Montana in May of this year. The exhibition, From Rocky Shore to Rocky Mountains: The Irish in Montana and the developing relationship between UCC and Butte-Silver Bow Archives were an important element of discussion during the visit of Dr Murphy and the UCC delegation.
Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives
The Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives was established in 1981 to maintain the non-current records of the city-county of Butte-Silver Bow. Given the significant industrial, political and social history of Butte in the American West, the government records and archival holdings are in great demand by scholars, authors and genealogists.
For more information on hours, current and upcoming exhibitions, programs, and services at the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, please visit the Archive’s website at: www.buttearchives.org.
The Friends of the Butte Archives is a non-profit organization that provides support for the activities of the Archives. The Friends have sponsored this exhibit.
The Gathering Project
“The Gathering: Collected Oral Histories of the Irish in Montana” is a long-term interdisciplinary oral history project which seeks to record and to archive the Irish and Irish-American folk histories, memories, practices, and traditions of Montana. This project is funded by the Emigrant Support Programme of the Irish Government Department of Foreign Affairs, and the University of Montana, with support from the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, Humanities Montana, the Montana Historical Society and the Butte Storyteller's Project/Steward Magazine. Since its inception in 2010, we have gathered over 140 audio interviews (40 of these also filmed), and have produced a short film, a theatre performance, 8 short film vignettes, and a catalogue of interviews. All materials will be held in perpetuity at the archive of the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana, and we plan that they eventually will be available worldwide via the internet. The Gathering is a research project of the Irish Studies Program at the University of Montana. For information, go to: www.cas.umt.edu/thegathering or email: bernadette.sweeney@mso.umt.edu.
For this exhibition, The Gathering has produced a soundscape incorporating a few of the many voices and stories of The Gathering. We also provided a DVD with film footage of the project, other audio footage, and photographic material of Montana and Ireland.