Colm O'Connell

The 2021 Presidential Distinguished Service Award Recipients

IA Newsletter December 11, 2021

December 3, 2021 by Leave a Comment

The recipients of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad for 2020 and 2021, were presented by President Higgins at a Ceremony in Áras an Uachtaráin on 2nd December 2021. This is the tenth year in which recipients have received this award, which recognizes the contributions of members of the Irish diaspora who help build and expand Ireland's … [Read more...] about The 2021 Presidential Distinguished Service Award Recipients

March 23, 1847

On this day in 1847, the Choctaw Native American tribe collected money to help starving victims of the Irish potato famine. Several years before, in 1831, President Andrew Jackson seized Choctaw territory in what is now southeastern Mississippi and parts of Alabama, forcing the Choctaw to travel five hundred miles along the “Trail of Tears” to reserved Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The Choctaw people sympathized with Ireland’s forced submission to Britain, and with the starvation and disease that plagued them. A group of Choctaws gathered in Scullyville, Oklahoma and raised $170, which they then forwarded to a U.S. famine relief organization. Though U.S. contribution in aid to Ireland totaled in the millions, the Choctaw donation was by far the most generous.

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Colm O'Connell

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