The world remembers sufferers of the Great Irish Famine

The first annual Irish Famine Memorial Day is Sunday, May 17

Roseann Finnegan LeFevour, Chicago Regional Director of the American Ireland Fund, told Irish American News of Chicago that Mary Pat Kelly’s book “recalls the central event behind the Irish Diaspora – The Great Famine. There is a direct line between the stories imagined on those pages and what we do at The American Ireland Fund. While one million died in the famine, as Honora Kelly says in the book, two million escaped, one reaching back for the next, rescuing each other. The American Ireland Fund continues to reach across the sea to give back to our ancestral land in this same spirit."

In New York, the Consulate General of Ireland is contributing to Ireland’s commemoration of the Famine with its An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger) Public Lecture Series. Over the course of three days, lectures are being presented at the Consulate General, while poetry and music reflect the thoughts and emotions of those who experienced the Great Famine.

The series’ organizer, Irish Deputy Consul General in New York Breandán Ó Caollaí told IrishCentral: “I thought it appropriate that each evening we give voice to those who were afflicted or died during as a result of the Great Hunger but had no or were given no voice in the history or contemporary accounts of the famine. 

“Songs and music and traditions in the Irish language are thought by some to retain echoes of their voices so we are adding some music, song or poetry to accompany each night's lectures.”

 The first event was held on Friday, May 15, New York, and was entitled “Glórtha ón Ghorta/Famine Echoes." The event featured a talk from radio producer and Great Hunger expert Cathal Póirtéir, a reading from none other than Mary Pat Kelly, a reading of Walt Whitman’s poem on the famine, “Old Ireland,” and music from a uileann piper.

On Monday, May 18, the New York Consulate will host “The International Response to An Gorta Mór,” featuring Professor Christine Kinealy of Drew University, introduced by Dr. John Lahey, President of Quinnipiac University, home to one of the most extensive compilations of literature and artwork on the Great Hunger. Staff members from the Consulate General will perform the "Famine Song" in both Irish and English.

​
Nster.com