Art exhibition inspired by Imirce opens in New York City

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Irish artist Domino Whisker is exhibiting a new body of work inspired by Irish emigrant letters selected from the Kerby A. Miller Collection, made available online through the Imirce digital repository. Remember Me By, hosted by Dan Yoshii in New York City, is an exhibition that explores the strong bonds between Ireland and the United States (with a special focus on New York) forged by centuries of migration west across the Atlantic. The exhibition also delves into the lingering, universal preoccupations of emigrants across multiple generations, touching on the themes of homesickness, identity, displacement and belonging. Drawing on her own experience as an emigrant to the USA, Whisker found the Imirce collection by chance while seeking Irish emigrant stories online as inspiration for her pieces. 

The resulting work weaves words and images together to evoke the profound emotional terrain that is traversed by not only the Irish diaspora, but also shared with other diasporic communities across the globe. The embroidered works, on vintage Irish linen, poetically depict the epic ocean passage to America, the hopefulness and resilience of those who made the journey, and the suffering of those left behind who would likely never see their loved ones again in this life.

Writing in May 2025 about what she found while exploring the collection and how this would be incorporated into her work, Whisker explained that:

...the Imirce archive has been my source of joy for the last few weeks and I have spent countless hours reading over the contents of hundreds of letters. They are so poignant - what is so outstanding to me, is that in terms of immigration back then and in today's climate - not much has changed. This is really the message I want to draw attention to, subtly and sensitively.

For the work Come Home To See Me (pictured below), Whisker found inspiration in a 2-page letter written by Alice Martin Connolly (Co. Monaghan) at the turn of the century to her two emigrant daughters in New York. Her shaky hand and her mournful longing for her children are faithfully recreated word for word and reinvigorated in this new form. Selected from thousands of other letters, Whisker has personally connected with and resurrected Alice's voice in a way that the lonely mother would scarcely have been able to imagine a century ago.


Other featured letters include an extract from a letter by S. M. Byrnes, writing from New York to a cousin in Ireland (ca. 1800s) about wanting to experience being "moonstruck" (a dreamy type of love) in the city:


An extract taken from a letter written by Jeremiah O'Sullivan (29 July 1859) encourages his brother to come out to America and "make a fortune", if he can break away from the land that "still holds you":



A quote taken from a letter written by Patrick Murphy to his mother (15 September 1885) has been reimagined as a colourful souvenir postcard:


And a stanza taken from an original poem in Daniel Shehan's highly detailed Voyage Journal (1841) expresses the emotional toll of "leaving my own native place":


Remember Me By opened in September 2025 and will run until 31 October 2025. Find out more about the exhibition at the links below:

Author 

Marie-Louise Rouget is the Digital Archivist and project manager for the Imirce Project. In 2023, she published her graduate research, titled 'Grave Concerns: the state of public cemetery records management in South Africa'.

Image Credits

Header: Do Yous Be Lonely? | 2025 | Hand embroidery on vintage Irish linen | 30 1/8 x 44 1/8 inches (76.5 x 112 cm) | DYG-DW25.020 | Domino Whisker: Remember Me By | Credit: Dan Yoshii

Image 1: Come Home To See Me | 2025 | Hand embroidery on vintage Irish linen | 19 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches (49.5 x 56.5 cm) | DYG-DW25.019 | Domino Whisker: Remember Me By | Dan Yoshii

Image 2-3: Alice Martin Connolly, Drumgoan, County Monaghan, to her daughters Alice and Kate Connolly, [New York City], ca. late 1800s to early 1900s (University of Galway, Kerby A. Miller Collection/ Imirce, p155/13/2/1)

Image 4: Moonstruck | 2025 | Hand embroidery on vintage Irish linen | 16 x 17 3/4 inches (40.5 x 45 cm) | DYG-DW25.006 | Domino Whisker: Remember Me By | Dan Yoshii

Image 5: The Land That Holds You | 2025 | Hand embroidery on vintage Irish linen | 13 3/8 x 16 inches (34 x 40.5 cm) | DYG-DW25.007 | Domino Whisker: Remember Me By | Dan Yoshii

Image 6: Grand Handsome City | 2025 | Hand embroidery on vintage Irish linen | 14 3/8 x 16 3/8 (36.4 x 41.5 cm) | DYG-DW25.004 | Domino Whisker: Remember Me By | Dan Yoshii

Image 7: O My Dear Darling | 2025 | Hand embroidery on vintage Irish linen | 18 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches (47.5 x 47.5 cm) | DYG-DW25.011 | Domino Whisker: Remember Me By | Dan Yoshii

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