And there’s more – you are still a long way behind!

A proper day of mist and mellow fruitfulness as we set off early, with the thermometer reading six degrees, a whopping thirty degrees less than it did four days ago. The drive took us across the Sperrin Mountains, along the length of the scenic route that we failed to find on the previous day. We remarked on the trend for ostentatious gateposts that seem common on even quite modest dwellings.

After a lovely drive, we arrived at the Ulster American Folk Park. This should definitely be on everyone’s itinerary. It consists of period houses, almost all of which have been re-erected having been transported from elsewhere, including some from the States. These are used to tell the story of the widescale Irish emigration to the United States and Canada in a graphic and accessible way.

Although we think of mass emigration taking place in the famine years, prior to that, between 1815 and 1845, 1 million people left Ireland for North America, 400,000 of them from the counties that now make up Northern Ireland. A further million left during the famine years 1845-1851, over 300,000 from Ulster. In the eighteenth century, linen production was an important part of the Irish economy. Competition from American imported cotton, impacted on the linen producers and was an impetus for emigration. Agrarian unrest and the slump in the demand for Irish linen, led to 30,000 emigrants leaving Ulster in the 1770s, beginning chains of migration. Strangely, the main ports of departure were not on the west coast but the north and east, with ships leaving from Belfast, Newry, Derry, Portrush and even Dublin. By the 1820s, most Irish emigrants travelled first to Liverpool and then left from there.

The experience began with an indoor exhibition, focussing on the stories of real female emigrants, then we moved to the park. The whole site was very carefully arranged so you passed through the ‘Old World’, with typical Irish buildings first. Some of the buildings were inhabited by costumed guides who explained the history of the building and told the story of the emigrants who lived in that house. Only the Irish home of the Mellon family is in its original location. It is hard to imagine the logistics involved in dismantling and re-building the others. You then passed down the shopping street in an Ulster port and boarded the emigrant ship, where conditions were cramped and food poor. Those leaving during the famine were usually malnourished and/or sick before they embarked. In 1847, 20,000 Irish emigrants died on the journey. Leaving the ship, you find yourself in the ‘New World’, where the buildings have all been transported from America and include the American homes of the families whose Irish dwellings are also on the site.  Pumpkin, sweet corn and tobacco are all being grown on the New World side of the park.

There is a commitment to working towards also telling the story of the enslaved and First Nations people and the exploitation that was a result of mass emigration from Europe. We couldn’t help thinking of the hundreds of tourists at Giant’s Causeway and feeling that they should all be here too but visitors at the park seemed to be few in number, which was a great shame and their loss.