Kate Coll Arrives in New York From Ireland on Board the SS Nevada.

September 1879 – Kate Coll Arrives in New York from Ireland Aboard the SS Nevada

Kate Coll, a young Irish immigrant from Bruree, County Limerick, arrives in New York City aboard the SS Nevada, part of the wave of 19th-century Irish emigration to the United States.

A few years later, she marries Juan Vivion de Valera, a Spanish-born sculptor and music teacher. On October 14, 1882, the couple’s son, Éamon de Valera, is born in New York City.

Though Éamon’s early years were spent in America, he would later return to Ireland and become one of the most pivotal figures in Irish history — a leader in the independence movement, a founder of Fianna Fáil, Taoiseach, and President of Ireland.

Kate Coll’s journey across the Atlantic thus marks the beginning of a family legacy that would shape the destiny of modern Ireland.