Module 4
Diaspora and Displacement
Diaspora and Displacement
“This great narrative of dispossession and belonging, which so often had its origins in sorrow and leave-taking, has become - with a certain amount of historic irony - one of the treasures of our society.”
~ Mary Robinson, Cherishing the Irish Diaspora, 1995
Emigration and exile have shaped Irish lives for centuries. For those who left, there were longings, losses, and struggles to belong in new lands. For those who stayed, grief often lingered at the empty chair, alongside resentment toward those who escaped hardship and ambivalence when returnees carried new accents, wealth, or critical eyes. This complex mix of feelings, this trauma, has been carried forward through generations, shaping both those who emigrated and those who remained.
In the diaspora, many carried an inner fracture, torn between an Ireland remembered and an Ireland they wanted to forget. Seeking new lives, many numbed themselves to their pain, yet this numbness left them unable to feel fully present in their adopted lands, belonging neither here nor there. This unresolved fracture still echoes in the descendants of immigrants today.
Whether acknowledged or denied, the trauma of centuries of colonization and the devastation of the Great Hunger still lives within the Irish, on and off the island. Some have turned away completely, others wear the stories as a badge of honor, while many idealize an “old country” that is more myth than reality. But we now know: unprocessed trauma lives in the body, and the body carries it, even across oceans.
And yet, Ireland holds profound resources for healing, with belonging as perhaps the most powerful. Many, whether in Ireland or in the diaspora, feel a deep separateness not only from others, but from themselves. Coming together, sharing our numbness, longing, shame, and grief, creates the possibility of recognition and repair. In such spaces, the richness of Irish land, culture, and spirit can again become available, offering pathways of connection and healing for generations to come.
Diaspora & Displacement with Patrick Dougherty
Patrick Doherty shares his journey of turning toward the wounds of an Irish Catholic upbringing and discovering how the trauma of colonization lives in the body and across generations.
This module explores how diaspora and inherited trauma shape Irish identity today. Through teaching, meditation, reflection, and group process, Patrick invites us into a collective field where what has been silenced can be named, felt, and transformed.
Patrick Dougherty
Patrick Dougherty, M.A., L.P, is a psychologist in Minneapolis., MN who has been in private practice for over 40 years.
His clinical focus is a relationally, based trauma therapy. He has spent most of his life having no interest in his Irish heritage, but the last few years he has been greatly surprised to learn how much his Irish ancestry has impacted him and his upbringing, and that not knowing about this intergenerational trauma has greatly impaired his own trauma healing and his own sense of his identity.
“They opened a place in Irishness for the diasporas that were, in many ways, the truest products of its history. It brought home the reality that had been obscured in the idea of emigration as tragedy and shame: we are a hyphenated people.”
~ Fintan O'Toole, We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland