Irish town offers opportunity to live like a Famine victim for a weekend

Local bigwigs have taken over part of a working hospital building for their own greedy back slapping purposes. If cash can be made out of the famine then these people are there to cash in.

We'll never hear the end of the .....fami... er Great Hunger...err the 1847 TIPSS (Temporary Interruption of Peasant Sustenance Supply). What you won't see in Ireland are groups of local volunteers preserving the history of all the victims of the catholic church. You won't find them restoring the church interment camps where women and children were kept in conditions that are an ongoing crime against humanity. It wouldn't even surprise if the local peasants, consistent with their Roman serfdom, invited the local Catholic cleric to cut the ribbon on the attic. You can bet no priest or bishop ended up in the attic or ate grass from the side of the road.

As the author of the material sent in to IrishCentral, I wish to state in the first instance that the thrust of the article published is out of context, and the background material provided to IrishCentral was not consulted (indeed, we supplied a picture which IrishCentral dubbed as being in Portumna and not in Carrick-on-Shannon). This is not a holiday, nor a Disneyland-like adventure. It is a legitimate use of a heritage site that a group of local voluntary people have saved and developed with respect as an enduring reminder of the Great Hunger (notice I didn't use the word 'famine'). For all ye objectors, why don't you put your money where your mouths are so we maintain this site and bring educational programmes to the public? Living History Projects go on all the time; the objectors are blasting something about which they have little knowledge.

Organisers hope to chase more of the Plastic Paddy Pound next year by expanding into Coffin Ship races in Galway Bay. Also in the pipeline: The Hedge School experience. Customers will spend a whole day stuck in a roadside hedge with a blackboard and the local lecherous Catholic priest. The Forelock Tipping Experience: This is one that is still practised today by Irish politicians. Customers will be taught how to acknowledge their betters like Bishops and publicans. Defiant Irish Dancing: Plastic Paddies can relive the foot swelling, arm deadening Irish version of dancing that's as popular now as ever. This unique and weird form of dancing teaches PP's how to combine a rigor mortis upper body with cocaine fuelled leg movements. The Grassy Knoll Day. No not the one that [wasn't] used to blow the head off that famous son of the sod JFK. This is another famine themed day out. Plastic Paddies can relive a whole day crawling on their hands and knees eating grass just like their mythical ancestors and it's all overseen by Redcoats just to keep the fantasy going. Smokey Cabin Fever: Spend a night in front of traditional turf fire breathing toxic smoke in a badly ventilated cramped cottage specially recreated from recently built ghost estates.

"people starved to death whilst England shipped Irish food to England and beyond so the could KILL OFF THE IRISH!!!" Annie MacS Yes there was a lot of food particularly grain exported but I think if you delve a bit further you will find that many of those exporting were in fact Irish people.The biggest issue was the prevailing economic theory of laissez faire which was adhered to with a religious like zeal by the Government.So much zeal in fact that John Mitchel is quoted as saying that "God sent the potato blight but the British sent the famine". The reality is there was no system of social support and relief in existence anywhere in the world, so nothing unique in the Irish situation. Social Conditions, reliance on one staple crop, subdivision of property, high birth rates all contributed to the disaster. There is no evidence whatsoever of the famine been a holocaust or genocide and to describe it as same is a total mis-representation of the facts. The Government response was totally inadequate and where relief schemes were in place often incompetently delivered.The works of private groups like the Quakers were far more effective.

I don't think the Article is presenting the project in its proper context. It is not a commercial exploitation as some people seem to think. The project was sponsored by a local voluntary non-profit group(Carrick-on-Shannon Historical Society)to restore the attic of the workhouse to show the public what conditions in a famine era workhouse were like.It is hoped that the exhibit will be open to the public and that this will highlight visually the prevailing conditions and environment. The Experience is part of the launch of the project and an effort to highlight the ongoing voluntary work of the Society who are seeking to preserve and conserve local history.

Are you joking? Are you that desperate to make money that you'll trivialize the deaths of millions at the hands of the British. Do you think you'd find the same "opportunity" to "live like a" Holocaust victim in Israel?? You are a pathetic organization that should be run out of town for your mockery!

The best site one the Irish Holocaust on Facebook is Irish Holocaust-Push to Educate the facts

OMG are you kidding me? This is sickening...How dare anyone offer an 'OPPORTUNITY' to experience hunger to the point of death..Exploitation at it's worst. I can't even think of enough examples of how horrible this 'expeience' is..Oh I've got it how about picking up any one of the books that report how Genocide by the British Govt caused the 'Fake Famine' There was NO FAMINE..people starved to death whilst England shipped Irish food to England and beyond so the could KILL OFF THE IRISH!!!! Get the facts straight..

Butch 1, have just read your comment and it says it all, I entirely agree with you.

I think this is an absolute disgrace. It just trivialises the most horrific event in our history and demeans the suffering of millions - how dare they. Will those people who spend a comfy weekend followed by a "Quaker style supper" even begin to realise what those places were really like, with fever and dysentry and bodies piling up in mass graves outside? I don't think so. The organisers should be ashamed of themselves and so should Irish Central for promoting it as "an opportunity".

Robin - what is your point??? Denial??

MollieBawn: When you read about the Irish famine the writers never ever set the record straight that the English, Irish, Welsh and Scots all had it bad in those days 'even if they had a job', Here's some proof culled from the Durham Mine Owners Mine Accident reports archives, there are thousands of accidents listed these being just 3 examples. I do hope things improve for you if you see this post and reply could you enlighten me as to the Free Roof Insulation scheme in Ireland. MINING TRAGEDIES: Taylor, Richard, 1858, aged 11, He was oiling the horizontal wheel and then sat down on the framework with his legs dangling between the spokes of the wheel which was suddenly set in motion and he was drawn in. His head and shoulders were severely crushed and his right arm broken. He died immediately. Williamson, John, 04 Mar 1888, aged 54, [Not Employed], A tramp, scalded to death by the bursting of a steam pipe while sleeping near to the coke ovens for warmth; no one knew he was there Kyle, James, 17 Dec 1908, aged 14, Tub boy, He had been leaning over the back end of a tub, taking the tokens off as they passed and had fallen on to his face. The tub following had then caught him between the legs and inflicted terrible injuries from which he died. If you saw photos of these people, thier homes and childrens condition you'd know what I'm getting at. Tragedy was the lot off the working man, and more should have been done.

And i know what these poor people went thru, hell & sad as it is they are long, long dead... Are all you people aware of how some of us live? do you really want to know or is talking about history blinding you all at the lives we are living. This is not about the famine... what!! in our house it IS the famine.. there is just no way out of it

Famine... living thru' it.... after 10 kids, my husband worked all his life & now retired we live on €300 a week €75 rent in council house my current E.S.B bill €264 so definitely can't use heating r anything else for that matter,had only been turning on the oil for 1 hour morn'n & even'n. Cud never afford to buy out our council house & they say we are not entitled to upgrading it even tho, we are living here 38 yrs it only cost €4,500 wen we moved in only people on long term dole are entitled to fuel allowance & watever's going !! why !! my husband worked all his life on a very small wage in a family run business & didn't use taxpayer's money, the walls are covered with mould & i have chronic arthritis & my husband has prostate cancer.... I have nothing against young unmarried single parents but wonder why they get oil & house lagging etc., etc., & yes i know because my daughter is one & while i'm glad for her it's very demoralising for us oldies when u have 2 sit at night with a blanket 'round u to save oil.... I've put my children to school, how i don't know & they had to move out of the country... Yes, this is modern Ireland... I thought i was coping, but reading this back has made me very downhearted & sad that we never had enough to save for retirement. Happy retirement... cold & alot of the time hungry..... And no, don't have a rich Aunt. Never wanted big things just enough to buy out my house & enough to feed ourselves.... aw well nothing good about this but good 2 write it down