Boston Irish Fight Today's Famines After building a $1 million memorial park last year to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine, Boston's Irish community is turning its attention toward people suffering from contemporary famines throughout the world. A proposed Irish Famine Institute that blends social activism and academic research is currently in the … [Read more...] about Hibernia: Famine Diary
Irish Famine
What Social Distancing Meant During the Famine
By Niall O'Dowd, Publisher Social distancing during the famine was leaving your home and hearth and catching the boat to America. The hovel you left behind had a dirt floor and was often shared with animals. Dysentery, cholera, malnutrition was rife. Ventilators were the holes in the roof to let the smoke from the tiny fire escape. Once there was nothing to cook the … [Read more...] about What Social Distancing Meant During the Famine
Phoenix Remembers the Great Hunger
The 2019 International Commemoration of the Great Irish Famine will take place in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, November 3. Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Chair of the National Famine Commemoration Committee, Josepha Madigan T.D., made the announcement in July. “This year’s commemoration represents an opportunity to not only recognize the work … [Read more...] about Phoenix Remembers the Great Hunger
Remembrance
The potato blight arrived in Ireland in the late summer of 1845.Pest, parasite, fungus, invisible and invincible,it stuck across Europe, the same sudden, unstoppable invasion everywhere. Infection, corruption, devastation.But Ireland was a special case.Ireland was a place where for millions of people, the potato was neither staple nor supplement, but sustenance: … [Read more...] about Remembrance
Ties That Bind
Two successful Irish Americans share an experience of giving...more than money. ℘℘℘ Mary Pat Lyons O'Connor listened to the old woman, her grandfather's sister, Margaret, as she spun her narratives of the Irish Famine and the small fenced hillocks, famine graves, where hundreds of the nameless lie buried. The two women were in the sitting room of a three-room farm … [Read more...] about Ties That Bind