America250 Commemorative Programme

The America250 Commemorative Programme acknowledges and reflects on the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

This anniversary provides Ireland with a unique opportunity to highlight the enduring influence of Irish people on the foundation, growth, and development of the United States.

In October 2025, The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Harris T.D., brought a Memo to Government detailing plans to mark this anniversary. This included a programme to present the Irish story in the United States and a national programme of events that was to be led by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

America250 is the commemorative programme that has been developed by the Department in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland, the local authority network, An Post, the National Cultural Institutions, and institutes of learning. This programme will be supported by the Department of the Taoiseach through the Shared Island Initiative.

All initiatives included in this programme are required to be in keeping with established principles of commemorations including respectful remembrance, historical authenticity, inclusivity and accessibility.

This programme has been developed considering the pillars of commemorations- historical exploration, creative and artistic expression and community-led commemorations.

• Across the States: An Irish Cultural Atlas of America and Drawing from the Well: America250 Live, the Irish Traditional Music Archive

This flagship project, Across the States: An Irish Cultural Atlas of America, developed by the Irish Traditional Music Archive with support from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is creating a state-by-state interactive digital map of Irish traditional music and migration in the United States. The searchable online resource will be launched in November of this year.

Drawing from the Well: America250 Live is scheduled for Boston on Thursday, 30 April and Friday, 01 May. The performances will be curated drawing artistic inspiration from the mapping project. Several satellite events in the U.S. or on the island of Ireland are also under consideration.

• America250 Publications, Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and the Department for Communities Northern Ireland

Two publications profiling each United States President with ancestral roots in Ireland will be delivered in partnership with the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.

The publications which will be completed by Dr Angela Byrne will include biographies for each relevant President with related images.

Aimed at a general audience and an addition for younger readers, the publications will seek to increase awareness of the many links with the US Presidency over the centuries and across all regions of the island.

This publication will be made freely available in keeping with the commemoration’s principle of accessibility.

• The American President’s Trail in partnership with the Department for Communities and the local authority network

Numerous communities across the island of Ireland have ancestral connections to former U.S. Presidents. Delivered in partnership with the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland The American President’s Trail will identify, mark and highlight these locations.

Working with the island’s local authority networks, the sites will be identified and it is proposed to have a native tree and an interpretive information panel at each site. A co-ordinated all-island tree-planting ceremony is proposed.

• Irish Diasporas and the Making of America UCD, Conference, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin

In June, the Clinton Institute in UCD will host a conference focusing on the roles of Ireland and Northern Ireland and their peoples in the making of America.

The project will examine how peoples from the island of Ireland took an outsized stake in the American national story and were instrumental in its development with notable impact in its political and popular cultures. This is also the story of the making of Irish American and Ulster Scots cultures and identities as the ethnic passage from emigrant to American shadowed the growth of the young nation.

The conference will consist of speakers from the island of Ireland and international universities.

• US250 The Irish Connection and Ireland and the Making of America, Documentary and exhibition

A short documentary titled US250 The Irish Connection and an exhibition Ireland and the Making of America have been commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in collaboration with EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum.

The documentary and exhibition will be made available to local authorities and stakeholders to be shown free of charge in their respective public facing facilities including the library network.

• Digitisation project, National Library of Ireland

The National Library of Ireland are organising a conservation and digitisation project as part of the America250 programme. This includes various holdings relevant to the area of America250 that will be made available online for public access. Promotion of the resources will be via their website, online catalogue and social media.

A number of local authorities are planning America250 Commemorative events with support through the Local Authority Commemoration Grants administered through the Commemorations Unit in the Department.

• The Unfinished Broadside, Production, Monaghan County Council

The Unfinished Broadside a drama, music, and dance performance is created by the Bready & District Ulster Scots Development Association.

It explores the story of John Dunlap, a Strabane-born printer of the American Declaration of Independence. The production examines the beginning of the great experiment that became the United States of America, highlighting the significant Ulster-Scots connection.

It is proposed to bring the multi-sensory performance to the Peace Campus in Monaghan in autumn. The production will complement the Ulster Scots story that is explored in the museum’s major new exhibition Bordering Realities – Monaghan People and Stories.

• America250 workshops as part of Wainfest Children’s Arts and Book Festival, Donegal County Council

A series of educational children’s events to commemorate the American Semiquincentennial will be held as part of the Wainfest Children’s Arts and Book Festival. These workshops will explore the historical and cultural connections between Ireland and the United States in an engaging, age-appropriate way.

The workshops will introduce young participants to key moments, stories, and themes from 250 years of American history, highlighting the shared experiences, migration stories, and cultural influences that link the USA and this island.

• Hindsight- History Festival @Hinterland Festival of Literature, Meath County Council

There will be an American focus for the 2-day history festival associated with the annual Hinterland Kells book festival. The history of the US and of the Irish-America diaspora will be covered in a ten-lecture series.

The lectures will be programmed by Dr Myles Dungan, RTÉ History Show and curator of the Hinterland Festival. The lectures will included Dr Dungan and leading local, national and international speakers.

• America at 250, Wexford County Council

The Kennedy Homestead and the Dunbrody Famine Ship in New Ross are the proposed locations for Wexford County Council commemorative programme.

The programme will include a series of lectures focusing on the emigrant experience as well as a review of America culture through music and song. There will be a film screening in St Michael Theatre and an exploration of American transport and food.

• Across the Atlantic: Clare & St. Louis – A Youth Music Commemoration for America250, Clare County Council

Clare Arts Office in conjunction with Music Generation Clare and in partnership with St. Louis Irish Arts (SLIA), will deliver a major transatlantic youth music commission Across the Atlantic: Clare & St. Louis – A Youth Music Commemoration for America250.

This initiative aims to reflect on the historic and cultural connections between County Clare and the United States during the early years of the Irish State. The connection also developed from the famous aviator from St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh, the first aviator to succeed in a solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in his famous for aeroplane, Spirit of St. Louis.

Teenagers from Clare and from St Louis will take part in two performances of an original commission in St Louis in June, and in Ennis in July. The work, which was informed by archival resources, is by Music Generation Clare musicians (led by composer Pádraig Rynne) and will explore themes of emigration, identity, belonging, democracy, and cultural exchange between Clare and St. Louis.

Please check with our individual project partners for more information.