ATU Mayo campus welcomes distinguished US university visitor
LEADVILLE, Colorado, towering above the 'Mile High' city of Denver, was at one time a 'boom town' following the discovery of silver there in the late 1800s. Thousands of immigrants flocked to this most inhospitable part of America, high in the Rocky mountains, hoping to get rich quick, working in the mines.
Sadly, most of the Irish were destined to remain on the bottom rungs of Leadville's social classes, with hundreds succumbing to disease and workplace related accidents.
Mayo's Michael Davitt, co-founder of the Land League, visited Leadville on a number of occasions where he encouraged the workers and miners to remain united in pursuit of better pay and working conditions.
Prof. James Walsh from the University of Colorado, Denver has dedicated an enormous amount of time and painstaking research in identifying the names of over 1,200 Irish immigrants who perished and died there and have lain in unmarked, sunken graves in the Catholic pauper section of Leadville's Evergreen Cemetery. A high proportion of those who toiled there, including sizeable numbers who had previously worked in the coal mines near Scranton, Pennsylvania, were from Mayo.
Prof. Walsh believes this little known yet significant connection between Colorado and Mayo, in particular the Michael Davitt connection, has the potential to open new links in tourism, academia, business and other forms of collaboration.
During the course of a recent visit to the Mayo campus of the ATU, facilitated by Michael Larkin, Professor Walsh met with members of the academic staff and was given a brief overview of the evolution of the campus as a former psychiatric hospital to university status today.
Following his visit, Prof. Walsh stated: “I would dearly love to play a role in the establishment of possible future collaborations between the University of Colorado, Denver and the Atlantic Technological University here in Mayo.”
Michael Gill, Department Head of Organisational Development, ATU, in welcoming Prof. Walsh, outlined how the Mayo campus looks forward to exploring options and possibly in the not-too-distant future welcoming students from the University of Colorado, Denver to Mayo.
Mr. Gill also acknowledged the role of Michael Larkin in facilitating this significant visit.