LOCATION
The Centre is located in the National University of Ireland, Cork (also known as UCC - University College Cork). The National University of Ireland was founded (as the Queen's Colleges) in 1845, with branches in Cork, Galway and Belfast (Nowadays NUI Cork is linked with NUI Dublin, Galway and Maynooth, while Queen's University Belfast is an independent institution). In Cork more than 11,000 students attend the university.
Cork city is Ireland's third largest (after Dublin and Belfast), situated on the southern coast. It is a major port, agricultural region and manufacturing centre (pharmaceuticals, chemicals, IT manufacturing). The city and surrounding regions are very scenic, while there are excellent transport links to other parts of Ireland and Europe.
The Cork harbour area, including the ports of Cork and Cobh, has been a major port of emigration for centuries and is in this sense a most appropriate place. In addition, the Cobh Heritage Centre already provides a dedicated public facility for those interested in emigration as an aspect of cultural tourism. Finally, UCC has a number of staff members with a serious interest in teaching and research in the field of migration studies.
The Centre is housed in a separate building at No. 6, Bloomfield Terrace, Western Road, Cork. Facilities consist of a resource centre housing books, journals and internet access, teaching space, a dedicated IT room for GIS, website and related projects and office space for the director, marketing assistant, postgraduate students and interns.
The Centre will also make use of certain major resources, notably in the area of significant existing archival materials, library holdings and technical services, already available in University College Cork.
The Irish diaspora itself does not have a "centre". It will be a central element of the our philosophy that, when addressing issues in the general field of Irish migration studies, network is a more appropriate paradigm than centre. Thus, while the main part of the ICMS’ physical location is expected to be in Cork, its global role will be stressed from the outset. This will be achieved by (a) the development of joint collaborative activities with other institutions and interested bodies (b) the use of Internet technology to bring the data and resources of the centre to a world-wide audience.
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