Reaching Out with Irelandxo.com

The Irish Photo Archive was approached by Irelandxo.com to help them run a competition on their website and social media sites. Irelandxo.com, or Ireland Reaching Out, is an organization created to strengthen ties between Ireland and the Irish diaspora.

Inspired by the Gathering, Ireland Reaching Out starts the tracing process in Ireland, following families or individuals that were forced to leave an area and linking up with their descendants, instead of waiting for the descendants to start the search.

Ireland Reaching Out has started gathering information on communities, focusing on a local level. Through their website and social media, the organization asked people to send in old photos of their local area. As an added incentive, all participants were entered into a draw and a 16x12” print from the Irish Photo Archive was offered to the winner.

The lucky winner, Mary Ellen Jacobs from Toms River in New Jersey, was chosen on Monday, and has been happily trying to select a print from the Irish Photo Archive website. This is what Mary Ellen told the Ireland Reaching Out staff after hearing of her win:

“What wonderful news on a Monday Morning!!  It will probably take me days to make a selection.  The collection is quite impressive.”

Though winning a print is a great present, trying to choose between all the great images we have on offer will be very difficult. But we have no doubt Mary Ellen will find the right image for her soon.