Sender: The Irish Diaspora Studies List
From: "Herson, John"
Subject: Re: Closure of the List
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Dear Bill,

Thanks for all the work you and Patrick have put into this list over many y=
ears. I'm sorry to see it go but fully understand your reasons. Hopefully s=
ee you and all the other contributors in Dublin.

John Herson

-----Original Message-----
From: The Irish Diaspora Studies List [mailto:IR-D[at]JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behal=
f Of Bill Mulligan
Sent: 05 July 2017 01:20
To: IR-D[at]JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: [IR-D] Closure of the List

With considerable sadness I must inform list members that the list will cea=
se operation on July 31, 2017. We will continue to post items of interest t=
o Irish Diaspora Studies as well as information on accessing the list archi=
ves, etc./



After consulting my fellow list owner Anthony McNicholas and list founder P=
addy O'Sullivan this seems the reasonable thing to do. List traffic has dec=
lined dramatically and what traffic we have is largely announcements. It h=
as been some time since we had a discussion of any length or spirit.
Perhaps out high point was the spirited discussion of Richard Jensen's arti=
cle on the lack of discrimination against Irish Americans. More recently th=
ere was little response to a young (high school) student who published a pi=
ece disproving his thesis and his response. Electronic media has evolved an=
d listserves are no longer new or innovative. I have noticed many groups mo=
ving to Facebook pages. I see little real, engaged discussion.
Technology moves on.



Over the next few weeks I will share some thoughts on what I think we have =
accomplished and welcome other to share. I value the many people I have met=
through the list , several of whom invited me to stay in their homes befor=
e they had actually met me. I will always remember hearing people whisper=
to the person next to them "that's what he looks like" when I gave some op=
ening remarks as a substitute at the Ireland Australia conference some year=
s ago in Cork. The list has been a large part of my life and my career but =
its day is over.



I want to remind everyone of the Diaspora conference at UCD next month. I a=
m sure it will be brilliant. I had very much been looking forward to it - b=
ut we (Murray State) start unusually early this year. I am teaching severa=
l courses that will be heavily first year students and I have learned from =
experience not being with them for the beginning poses problems and is hard=
to overcome. I will be there in spirit.



To everything there is a season ...



Bill



William H. Mulligan, Jr. , PhD

MSU Alumni Association Distinguish

Professor of History

ed Researcher 2012

MSU Board of Regents Award for Teaching Excellence, 2005

Murray State University

Murray KY 42071-3341 USA



Moderator, Irish Diaspora Discussion List [IR-D[at]jiscmail.ac.uk]

President, Jackson Purchase Historical Society

President, Chapter 302 The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi



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Sender: The Irish Diaspora Studies List
From: Patrick O'Sullivan
Subject: A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning
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So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

From Patrick O'Sullivan

First of all, let me wholeheartedly thank Bill Mulligan for his support and
friendship over the decades - and especially, on your behalf, for his
support of the Irish Diaspora List. I think it is in all our experience of
trying to develop Irish Diaspora Studies that there are people who just get
it - and, from the very beginning, Bill Mulligan got it.

Bill and I have not actually met all that often. In 2009 he did manage to
visit me, here in Yorkshire, and enjoyed a little voyage on my narrowboat -
see the Ir-D message dated 05/04/2009, Bill et Paddy vont en bateau.

(And, of course, it was only Patrick Maume who grasped that cultural
reference...)

I don't think I ever reported that, on that voyage, Bill behaved with his
usual calm when the throttle cable snapped...

Pause for meditation. Yes, the throttle cable snapped.

I also thank Anthony McNichols, for his continuing quiet support in the
background.

One feature of the Irish Diaspora List is that it is self-referencing - that
is, whenever an important change is made there is a message that records
that change, on the list, and in its archives. So, let me continue that
practice.

Background
I founded our email discussion forum, the Irish Diaspora List, in November
1997 - when I had an academic base at the University of Bradford. In 2004 I
moved the Irish Diaspora list to Jiscmail, the UK's academic Listserv.

I did manage to preserve the archives of the Irish Diaspora list, from the
very beginning. Through many vicissitudes.

In 2011, we were able - with the help of the technicians at Jiscmail - to
integrate the various incarnations of the Irish Diaspora List within
Jiscmail. So that the entire archive, from 1997 to the present, is there
within Jiscmail. If you log into Ir-D at Jiscmail you can see the archives
there, right back to 1997.

In May 2012 I withdrew from the day to day management of the Irish Diaspora
List.

I do have to say that, for me, this was the right decision. Simply put, I
have reached an age and a stage where I should take better care of myself -
and that means rationing the amount of time I spend at keyboards and
computers. And maybe, given that I am supposed to be a working writer, give
more time to just working at writing...

In 2013 I stored away the archives of the Irish Diaspora List, as things
stood at that point. This material, sixteen years of archives of the Irish
Diaspora List, 1997-2013, is now stored on two computer discs. Copies of
these discs have been lodged with the Glucksman Ireland House, NYU, and with
the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster-American Folk Park, Omagh,
Northern Ireland. The covering letter that accompanied those discs gave
permission to make further copies of the discs. The archive of the Irish
Diaspora List were also picked up by the British Library Web Archive
project, as were various versions of my own web sites.

As we all know, the people now associated with the day to day management of
the Ir-D list - Bill Mulligan (Murray State University, USA) and Anthony
McNichols (University of Westminister, UK) - have now indicated that they
feel that it is time to bring the Ir-D list to an end. And we have all had
that discussion.

We would like to wrap things up in an orderly way, and insure that the
archive is safe.

We have that in hand, and have negotiated a procedure with Jiscmail. It
seems to us that any member of the Irish Diaspora List who wants to have a
copy of the archives should have one, and we will create a procedure for
doing that. Further message to follow...

Not quite twenty years, 1997-2017. All the archives preserved. We have not
done too badly...

Paddy O'Sullivan

Patrick O'Sullivan
Visiting Scholar, Glucksman Ireland House, New York University
http://irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/page/faculty
Patrick O'Sullivan's Whole Life Blog http://www.fiddlersdog.com/ Irish
Diaspora Studies http://www.irishdiaspora.net Song
http://www.songlyric.co.uk Archive
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ooj5btdttc9y4/Documents
Back Up Email Patrick O'Sullivan Personal Fax 0044 (0)
709 236 9050