Welcome to the development website of the Charleston Irish Heritage Project, which is being planned as a collaboration between educational and institutional interests in the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

 

The project aims to bring together the efforts of many people over the past decades to increase awareness of Ireland and its culture among students at every level of education, among the descendants of Irish immigrants and among the population at large.

 

It will build on collections of materials, mainly in manuscript and print format, that have been gathered by various individual and institutional interests in the normal course of their work, and as part of various initiatives including the 'Charleston Irish Trail' project;  the commemoration (2006-8) of James Hoban, the Irish-born architect and builder who spent his formative years in Charleston before embarking on the design and construction of The White House; the 'Festival of Ballycahill' (2009);  and the Irish Memorial Park (completed 2013).

 

It is hoped that the project will have a significant outreach capability to young people, college students and the general public, and that it may also enable people to look beyond Charleston at the contribution of the Irish in other locations and areas of interest across the United States.