For over a century and a half, shame and silence were the most common Irish responses to the calamity of the Great Hunger. A million dead, a million fled was the old saying, but concern over igniting further strife in the present (a particular concern during the Troubles) kept a lid on most discussions of it. But now a new roadshow coming to the USA and Canada plans to give voice to the descendants of famine era Irish immigrants, many for the first time.
The roadshow is being funded by the Emigrant Support Program of the Irish government. Thanks to a new initiative from the both the National Famine Museum in Strokestown Park and The Irish Heritage Trust, a series of free open house events will be held in the USA and Canada where descendants of Irish emigrants and the general public are welcome to come together and share their family memories and stories of coming to America, especially during the period of the Great Hunger, which was 1845 to 1852.
The roadshow will visit New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Haven, Toronto and Montreal, see the website at http://www.greatfaminevoices.ie for times and dates.
You can learn more in the video above and in an article by Cahir O’Doherty in the IrishCentral web site at http://bit.ly/2vpTPhQ.
5 Comments
I guess The Emigrant Support Program believes all the Irish immigrants and their descendants stayed on the East Coast!
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Right! That was exactly what I was thinking. What a shame the area visited is so limited.
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Exactly!
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I tried to register 4 times. Each time I received an error message. I will not be registering. Too bad. I would have appreciated the opportunity to honor my Irish immigrant ancestor.
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Tried many times to register with no success. So very disappointing. I am a descendant from many Irish who came to Australia during the Great Famine and am certainly not a spam bot.
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