IrelandXO
Pictured: Ireland Reaching Out volunteer Abel Nieva by the shores of the Lake of Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland, 2024.
“You must come to Buenos Aires and help me with the Irish vote,” my old classmate from Harvard Business School in the early 1990s, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta said to me with a grin at a Harvard School Reunion in 2013. I listened, bemused, and in partial disbelief. Surely, those of Irish descent who had emigrated to Argentina could in no way be consequential to an Argentine election these days I said, but Horatio persisted. The Argentine Irish were a proud lot he said, and the numbers he said might surprise you. Some quick research led me to understand that in Argentina, over 650,000 people claim Irish heritage. 1.5% of the population of 45 million! Yes, big enough to decide a very tight election.
That conversation awakened me to the sometimes overlooked history of the Irish of Argentina.
According to records, Argentina ranks fifth in terms of the countries Irish emigrants moved to after the USA, UK, Australia and Canada.
The history of the Irish in Argentina is not as well known as the above named countries. Spanish speaking, Argentina presented a harder challenge to the estimated 40,000 Irish men and women who emigrated from the counties of Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, and Wexford, peaking in numbers between the years of 1830 and 1870.
What attracted the Irish to Argentina was the promise of land and better living conditions than famine-inflicted Ireland. Argentina was empty, said the advertisements and there was plentiful land and work for those of farming background - not least those with experience in sheep farming.
Emigrants ended up close to Buenos Aires and the surrounding Pampas region with a fortunate few becoming wealthy “estancieros” or landowners. The Irish in Argentina largely retained their cultural identity, building schools, churches, and community organizations, led for many decades by a formidable priest from Loughrea, Co Galway, by the name of Father Anthony Fahy. (Who we will write about in detail in an upcoming newsletter.)
For now though, Ireland Reaching Out is starting to engage in a fascinating project for which we are open to talk to volunteers from our ever expanding communities.
Some of you will be aware that Ireland Reaching Out has a team of volunteers who trace the roots of serving politicians in the United States at state and federal level to make sure they are aware of their Irish Heritage! It is an exciting project, and we have reconnected many US elected officials to their communities of origin in Ireland in recent years. Many have gone home having met long lost relatives and a great many new friends.
An exciting new extension of this project is that we are opening this project to volunteers based outside of the USA, in the UK, Australia, Canada, and now Argentina.
Yes, the Irish in Argentina are a small community, however, at 1.5% of the 45 million population, that means on average that of the 331 Federal elected officials and the 944 state politicians, 1296 in total, 20 are likely of Irish heritage!
If you are interested in helping us find them, let us know - and an understanding of Spanish is a necessity!
An Argentine Volunteer
Another wonderful modern example of Argentine Irish connections is the number of people from Argentina who have emigrated to Ireland in recent years. While the Irish census data does not provide us with an exact number, we are sure the number is in the many thousands. The booming tech industry in Ireland has attracted a large number of IT professionals to Irish shores.
A remarkable benefit of this new wave of emigration from Argentina to Ireland is that our charity now has a number of volunteers from Argentina actively engaging with our work.
Abel Nieva became a volunteer at Ireland Reaching Out in late 2024, a recent emigrant from Argentina via Spain. An IT professional, Abel arrived in Ireland as his wife, who hails from Venezuela, moved to Dublin as a medical doctor.
“Before I came to Ireland, I had no idea of the close connections that exist between Ireland and Argentina. However, when I say where I am from, Irish people light up with affection for my country, either mentioning that they always cheer for Argentina when they meet the English in football, or mention the famous Admiral Brown, who is a hugely adored national historical figure in Argentina, the founder of the Argentine navy who was born in Foxford, County Mayo.”
As a front end website engineer, Abel volunteers as a tech volunteer for Ireland Reaching Out, helping to develop what is becoming a very large depository of information about the Irish Diaspora.
“For me, Ireland Reaching Out allows me to connect locally with Irish people and Irish people and people of Irish heritage around the world. I am particularly keen to connect with members of the Irish diaspora in Argentina, or indeed, Irish people in Spanish speaking America. Ireland is a great place to live - but while it is a small country, it is extraordinarily outward looking, and everyone here is keen that our strong blood ties to South America are built upon.”
If you are interested in volunteering in exploring and building links between the Irish Diaspora in Argentina and Ireland today, please get in touch with us at info@irelandxo.com
¡Espero saber de usted pronto!