SEVENTYMILLION is a social project to find, map and connect the 70 million people around the world of Irish heritage. Whether your Irish-born or Irish by ancestry, living in Dublin or living in Capetown, a Gaelic speaker or hablante de castellano, the project wants to find out what Irishness means to you. Find your location and when you’re there, click the “Add me” button to tell the world about your Irish heritage. So far 84 people have added themselves to the map.

That’s at SeventyMillion.org. They also have a whole social networking kablamo along the same theme at seventymillion.com.

Did you know the Irish diaspora is a community at risk?

But something amazing has happened. Over the space of a decade Ireland overcame hopelessness to become one of the most successful economies in the world. People stopped emigrating. Irish people abroad started going home. Ireland opened its doors to others, becoming a multi-racial, multi-cultural success story; and the world sat up, took a deep breath, and said ‘Wow.’

But what this also means is that the global Irish community is being starved of new entrants and fresh spirit, bringing into question its health and existence as an active and meaningful community. The global Irish community is at risk. The community needs protecting.