Taking a derive through the underbelly of the festival city of Edinburgh, few signs of the once bustling settlement of Little Ireland remain along the Cowgate. While never a particular welcome diaspora on the East Coast of Scotland the little remains of a once-bustling Irish ghetto – whose families were cleared from the Old Town in successive waves from the end of the nineteenth century. Fleeing famine and persecution at home, a small Irish community built of migrant labour settled within the bowels of the city, meaning that in the ten years between 1862 and 1872 there were 5,688 baptisms at the adjacent St Patrick’s including 617 in the year 1865 alone - an average of 12 baptisms a week.

This presentation will share reflections on attempts to understand the trajectories that befell those who were displaced form the Cowgate - and the fate of their descendants. While a lack of available data remains a challenge to unpack the slum clearances - occurring within a context of bigotry and xenophobia – the tracing of social networks may help identify the hidden legacies of Little Ireland. Creative approaches to the mapping of these networks will be shared as the basis for discussion, inviting feedback form participants as to how to approach the discovery of networks long buried under decades of shame.