2025 was the bicentennial of The Peter Robinson Migration, which saw over two thousand Irish migrants move to Ontario as part of a British Empire settlement initiative.
Canadian Chris Nikkel's documentary The Lost Migration aired on the Lyric Feature on the 4th of January and is now available to podcast - listen above. He writes here about the genesis of the programme.
Like many documentary projects, The Forgotten Migration began with an offhand comment that held a seed of a story. I’m originally from Canada but have lived in Ireland for many years, so, when a relative mentioned that their property near Peterborough, Ontario had originally been settled by an Irish family, I felt compelled to investigate. Many immigrants living in an adopted country will recognise this compulsion—the strange comfort in connecting your country of origin to where you settled.
I quickly found the Ballyhoura Development Company website, and a page about the Peter Robinson Settlers: 2000 Irish men, women and children who left Ireland in 1825 because of poverty and colonial oppression. There was also a contact - Amanda Slattery - and the number for an office in Mitchelstown, Co Cork. When I called, I not only heard the story, but I inadvertently had also found a main contributor for what would become a radio documentary - passionate and community-focused, Amanda believed this forgotten migration needed to be remembered.
That first call was in 2022. Since then, the project for me has shifted from an initial curiosity to a potential documentary, and then to a practice-based PhD project. I've followed Amanda and her team since then, as they planned a bicentennial commemoration.
I was also introduced to people in Peterborough who were doing the same. But in Canada the story was different. The migration was never forgotten—commemorations in 1925 and 1975 had kept the memory alive, with many descendants still living on the farms their ancestors had settled two-hundred years earlier. But having a direct connection to Ireland was new, something that grew close as they planned the commemoration together.
By summer, 2025, a programme of events had been mapped out in Canada and Ireland. Thanks to a Royal Irish Academy Commemorations Bursary, I travelled to many of them, recording interviews with descendants, but also finding complexities inherent to story.
In Canada, the colonial story loomed large. While the Peter Robinson Settlers had created unique Irish communities around Peterborough, there was a growing recognition that these communities were built on the traditional lands of the First Nations people—many believed this colonial story had to be part of the commemoration, that it needed to be remembered.
In Ireland, the commemoration was more of a homecoming. And, while emigrants returning to Ireland is not a new story, it was in this case. Descendants were welcomed back to communities where their ancestors had left from two hundred years earlier—to Mitchelstown, Ballyporeen, Doneraile, Killmallock, Charleville and others. Amanda Slattery and her team believed these descendants deserved a connection to Ireland.
Perhaps this was motivated by other work that the Ballyhoura Development Company undertakes—they help recently arrived immigrants to Ireland forge a home in their adopted country. As an immigrant to Ireland myself, this resonates. So, for me, remembering how it feels to leave a country, and then adapt to a new one, was somehow part of the commemoration. Something that needed to be remembered, too.
Listen to more from The Lyric Feature here
About The Programme Maker: Chris Nikkel is a documentary maker who lectures at the National Film School at IADT in Dún Laoghaire. The Forgotten Migration is part of a practice-based PhD project at LUCA School of Arts, in Belgium.
