Douro 200th Anniversary

04/24/2026

📖 Introducing the "Douro Folklore Collection"! 📖

Drawing on our strong tradition of storytelling and taking inspiration from the Irish National Folklore Collection of the 1930s, we are excited to launch this new initiative tomorrow night.

Douro is a unique place, with strong connections to the land, its people, and our shared past. This project helps us protect our special legacy and preserve it for those who will come after us.

We are encouraging people to record stories of local people, places, happenings, legends, and traditions.

Fill in the stories you want to share in one of the “Douro Folklore Collection” notebooks and then return them to us or send a typed version to [email protected]. They will be transcribed for digital preservation, and we hope to publish from the collection next year.

Be sure to come out on Saturday April 25th to find out more and pick up your notebook!

01/04/2026

Check out this unique radio documentary, streaming today at 1PM Eastern!

Chris Nikkel, an Irish Documentarian, has been a familiar face at many events in Douro and beyond this past year. In "The Forgotten Migration" he presents our story to a national Irish audience which has largely never heard of the largest group migration in modern Irish history which arrived here in the Peterborough area in 1825.

Chris uses a mixture of conversation and audio events from people you may know, in both Canada and Ireland. Furthermore, he deftly works with songs recorded in Douro in the 1950s by folklorist Edith Fowke. Some of those recorded, advanced in age at the time, knew people in childhood who had emigrated from Ireland in 1825.

Tune in if you can today, or follow up on the link to listen back later.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/lyricfm/

🎧 Tune in to RTÉ lyric fm this Sunday, January 4th at 6pm to listen to The Forgotten Migration, an emotive audio documentary exploring the story of the Peter Robinson Settlers and the shared heritage linking Ireland and Canada.

Over the past two years, documentary maker Chris Nikkel has followed the history of the Peter Robinson Settlers, tracing connections between Ballyhoura Country and Peterborough County. The programme features Amanda Slattery, Development Manager with Ballyhoura Development, along with descendants of the Peter Robinson Settlers in Canada, Patrick Leahy and Nancy Towns. Through the musical collection of Edith Fowke, the documentary brings this history to life in a powerful and contemporary way.

This programme forms part of the collaborative commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Peter Robinson Settlers in Ballyhoura Country and Peterborough County.

You won’t want to miss it!

📻 Broadcasting on RTÉ Lyric FM
🎙 Podcast available after airing - we’ll share the link once live.

01/03/2026

Check this out tomorrow afternoon at 1PM Eastern time!

For the last couple years, documentarian Chris Nikkel has been a familiar face visiting us here in Douro and the wider area as he recorded the shaping of the 200th commemorative events here and in Ireland.

In this fascinating piece, prepared for an Irish national audience, he weaves together story, interview, live recording from this summer's events, and song's from our community's past, recorded in the 1950s and recalling events from the edges of living memory at the time and beyond.

This is a unique take on our own story as viewed from Ireland today - you won't want to miss it!

Follow this link to hear it tomorrow at 1PM.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/lyricfm/

🎧 Tune in to RTÉ lyric fm this Sunday, January 4th at 6pm to listen to The Forgotten Migration, an emotive audio documentary exploring the story of the Peter Robinson Settlers and the shared heritage linking Ireland and Canada.

Over the past two years, documentary maker Chris Nikkel has followed the history of the Peter Robinson Settlers, tracing connections between Ballyhoura Country and Peterborough County. The programme features Amanda Slattery, Development Manager with Ballyhoura Development, along with descendants of the Peter Robinson Settlers in Canada, Patrick Leahy and Nancy Towns. Through the musical collection of Edith Fowke, the documentary brings this history to life in a powerful and contemporary way.

This programme forms part of the collaborative commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Peter Robinson Settlers in Ballyhoura Country and Peterborough County.

You won’t want to miss it!

📻 Broadcasting on RTÉ Lyric FM
🎙 Podcast available after airing - we’ll share the link once live.

12/07/2025

A highlight of the 200th Events held in Ireland this September to mark the anniversary of the Robinson Emigration was a conference that featured Irish, American, and Canadian speakers.

People spoke from a variety of complementary backgrounds including history, archeology, genetics, genealogy, geography, and documentary.

The 11 speakers are presented in a playlist in the link below.

You can find specific Douro content in:

- John Tierney's talk on cemeteries, gravestones, and migration,

- Chris Nikkel's exploration of the voices of memory and commemoration, and

- Patrick Leahy's talk on the complex Irish and Canadian identities among the Irish communities of the Peterborough area in their first hundred years.

Though this is a story which we often see as our own small part of history, this conference was a great way to see its broader connections on both sides of the Atlantic.

Watch and listen to this presentation by Chris Nikkel, recorded at the Peter Robinson Settlers Emigration Scheme Conference at the Saint George’s Arts and He...

11/08/2025

Here’s a neat collaboration coming out of our 200th Anniversary work.

Many of you will have met John Tierney, archeologist, of Historic Graves Ireland, whoch receieved grant funding from the Royal Irish Academy to survey St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

John graciously shared his expertise this summer with us, and now we are happy to share the cemetery survey as it is added to the Historic Graves Ireland website.

The historic west section of the cemetery has been photographed, mapped, and transcribed. You can search by name and date for people of interest.

Watch for more gravestone transcriptions to be added in future as well.

Historic Graves Ireland has also surveyed the majority of the graveyards in the areas from which our Irish ancestors came from- something worth checking out as well!

09/24/2025

As we traced our families in North Cork this past week, among others we were following the story of the Moher family of the parish of Kilworth.

In 1831, the Mohers followed relatives and neighbours who had arrived in 1825 to Douro, where they have hundreds of descendants today, and even more spread across North America.

With some research, a little luck, and the wonderful assistance of many, we were able to make some impactful discoveries.

In the first video, we are exploring the old cemetery in the village of Kilworth. We find a series of Moher gravestones, with the oldest dated 1733, memorializing a William born in the 1600s, and his family. A more recent marks a William who died at age 88 in 1828, almost certainly the grandfather of the William who led his family to Canada along with his wife Elizabeth. As always, John Tierney's gravestone expertise is amazing to behold.

In the second video, we visit with Jim Moher, retired farmer, who has lived his whole life within a mile or two of where the Douro Mohers departed from. Many thanks to Jim and family for their gracious hospitality.

These were wonderful experiences, and show the many connections that can still be made in the areas from which our ancestors came.

09/23/2025

A very impactful moment in the last week.

Mike and Nancy Towns sharing a poem in Cobh, Co. Cork in 2025, written in 1925 in Douro by PG Towns, about the departure of the Irish Emigrants from Cobh in 1825.

Beautifully capturing commemoration on both sides of the Atlantic.

09/21/2025

Wonderful event yesterday in Mitchelstown. Great thanks are due to Ballyhoura Development CLG for drawing us all together across the Atlantic, and to Saint George's Arts and Heritage Centre for hosting us all.

Ideas flowed, friendships were made, and connections renewed.

The people, the landscape, and the heritage of the area are truly wonderful and for anyone wishing to connect to their past we cannot recommend enough making the journey.

09/18/2025

Following the journey of the Moher family, as they left from near Kilworth in 1831 to follow neighbours and relatives to Douro.
Watch for us exploring the lands they farmed, and the church their community built in 1821.

09/18/2025

This week, we are tracing some of our families who arrived in Douro from Ireland. What was a journey that took almost 6 months in 1825 can be done in a day in 2025- truly remarkable.

Watch for the follow ups to these gravestone visits in the villages and countryside where our families came from as we follow their steps in Ireland before they came to Douro.