Bride Doll

Bride doll sent to Ireland from the USA by Irish emigrants.

During the 1950s, over half a million people emigrated from Ireland, settling mainly in the USA and the UK. The arrival of the ‘American parcel’, sent by relatives who had emigrated, created great excitement, particularly if it included toys, such as this doll.

This bride doll was sent to a little girl in Ireland from her cousin in the United States of America. It was sent to her in the 1960s. The doll is wearing an off-white wedding dress with a matching headdress and veil. It has movable arms and legs and large moving eyes.

This doll represents maintaining connections between family in USA and Ireland. It also shows how emigration abroad was, and remains, common for Irish people.

Object number: DT:2016.27 

More information about the Irish diaspora and emigration:
Curran, Kathleen, Seanchaí : heartwarming stories of Irish immigration to England in the 1950s (United States, 2018)
---, ‘Recording precious memories of 1950s emigrants to Britain’ in The Irish Times, 2018 (https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/recording-precious-memories-of-1950s-emigrants-to-britain-1.3561415)
Ferriter, Diarmaid, The Transformation of Ireland (2005)
Fintan O'Toole, We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland (2022)
Fitzgerald, Patrick and Brian Lambkin, Migration in Irish History 1607-2007 (2008)
Glynn, Irial , ‘Irish Emigration History | University College Cork’ in University College Cork, 2012 (https://www.ucc.ie/en/emigre/history/)
Keogh, Dermot, Finbarr O'Shea and Carmel Quinlan, The Lost Decade (2004)
Redmond, Jennifer, Moving Histories (2018)
The Forgotten Irish, produced by Animo for TV3 (2009)
Delaney, Enda, Demography, State, and Society: Irish migration to Britain, 1921-1971, (2000, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool)
Hatton, Timothy J. & Jeffrey G. Williamson. “After the Famine: Emigration from Ireland, 1850-1913.” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 53, no. 3, 1993, pp. 575–600. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2122406 Accessed 22 Dec. 2022.
Kenny, Kevin, The American Irish: A History, (2000, Longman, England, New York)
MacRaild Donald, M. (ed.) The Great Famine and Beyond: Irish Migrants in Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. (2000, Irish Academic Press, Dublin)
McIntyre, Perry (2011) Irish immigrants from Australian records: the real keys to finding them in Ireland. National Museum Australia. https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/not-just-ned-irish-in-australia-series/transcripts/irish-immigrants-from-austral
Moran, Gerard P., Sending Out Ireland’s Poor: Assisted Emigration to North America in the Nineteenth Century, (2004, Four Courts Press, Dublin).
Ruhs, Martin & Quinn, Emma (2009) Ireland: From Rapid Immigration to Recession. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ireland-rapid-immigration-recession/
Santry, Claire (A) Emigration from Ireland in the 19th century. Irish Genealogy Toolkit. https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/emigration-Ireland-19th-century.html
Santry, Claire (B) Irish immigration to Britain. Irish Genealogy Toolkit. https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-immigration-to-Britain.html