Irish Immigrants to Peru: The Invisible Experience

In recent decades, there has been increased interest in the study of Irish immigration into Latin America. This book is the first detailed study of Irish immigration to Peru predominantly throughout the 19th century. Using primary sources such as personal letters, wills, birth, marriage, and death certificates, it creates a bridge between the past and the present that reintroduces Irish immigrants to Peru’s national collective memory. Focusing on representative examples of the different sectors of Irish immigration, it examines the lives of ordinary working-class immigrants who formed part of the first migration projects to Peru, especially during the Great Famine period, whilst also studying the biographies of successful Irish individuals such as John Patrick Gallagher O’Connor and William Russell Grace, who, shortly after arriving in Peru, successfully ventured into the commercial and professional world. The book creates a discursive pathway whereby a handful of Irish immigrants, who took a chance on Peru at the beginning of the nineteenth century, return, metaphorically, to their homeland. It also aims to give a voice to the Irish immigrants who contributed to the construction of Peruvian diversity. The author’s interest on this topic stemmed from a personal curiosity regarding her origins and the reasons for this exodus to Peru, a remote place with few incentives for immigrants. Readers will uncover the lives of Irish individuals who arrived in Peru and likely began a life far from what they expected which collectively had considerable influence on the process of forming modern-day Peru.