Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University

05/17/2022

Heroes of the Great Hunger Conference,
1 to 3 June 2022
attendance is free but register:
[email protected]

Conference Programme:

Heroes of Black ’47 *

2022 Famine Summer School
Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, Quinnipiac University
and
The National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park (Irish Heritage Trust)

All events are free – but donations on behalf of Ukraine are welcome. Please register with: [email protected]

* Black ’47 is the traditional designation given to the most lethal year of Ireland’s Great Hunger (1845 to 1852), which resulted in the deaths of over one million people and the emigration of two million more.

Wednesday 1 June – Canal Walk remembering Irish and Ukranian Refugees.
Farmington Canal Walk (Hamden), led by Professor Christine Kinealy. Meet at the canal entrance opposite Quinnipiac University, York Hill entrance.
Meet at 5.30 pm. Walk will be 5k – but feel free to do as much or little as you want.
If you cannot be with us in Hamden, consider doing a walk in your local area and send us a picture! Please wear yellow and blue.
Afterwards, approximately 6.30 pm onward, we will meet in the back room of Micro Depot for light snacks and an informal talk about the origins of the National Famine Way – a 100 mile walk from Roscommon to Dublin, recreating the route taken by 1,490 famine refugees in 1847 - by two historians who helped to launch it in 2019.
https://nationalfamineway.ie/

https://www.mikrodepot.com/

Please register for the Micro portion of the event, as numbers are limited: [email protected]



Thursday 2 June – Arnold Bernhard Library (ABL 218), Mount Carmel Campus, and the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center, New Haven

9.30 am – Official welcome by Robert Joven, Chief Librarian at Quinnipiac; Professor Christine Kinealy, Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Foundation; Dr Jason King, Academic Coordinator, Irish Heritage Trust and National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park.

9.45 – 10.45 am: Panel on Ireland and Ukraine ‘The Past is not over’, chaired by Dr Seán Duffy, Albert Schweitzer Institute:
Professor Christine Kinealy, ‘Weaponizing famine: Ireland and Ukraine compared’.
Joseph McDonagh, ‘Imaging Famines in Ukraine and Ireland’.
Father Jordan Lenaghan, who has recently returned from Poland and Ukraine, will speak about his experiences.

10.45 – 11.00 am: – Break. Water and light snacks will be provided.

11.00 – 12.00 am: – Keynote Lecture by Dr Gerard Moran, Emeritus Professor, Galway University: ‘Sending Back Ireland’s Paupers: The Repatriation of the Irish from Britain during the Great Hunger’.

12.00 – 12.45 pm: – Treasures of Quinnipiac’s Irish Collection (ABL 201). – and/or tour of Oscar Wilde Exhibition (Lender Room). Robert Young and Professor Christine Kinealy

12-45 – 1.30 pm: Lunch – bring your own or the café is open on campus.

1.30 - 2.30 pm: Keynote Lecture and Screening by Dr Jason King, Academic Coordinator, Irish Heritage Trust and National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park: Great Famine Voices and screening, The National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park and The Famine Irish in Chicago with Dr Sean Farrell of Northern Illinois University.

2.30 pm – Make your own way to Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center (formerly Knights of Columbus Museum), New Haven.

3.30 – 4.30 pm: Keynote lecture by Kirk Prichard, Vice President of Programs for Concern U.S.: Nothing Kills Like Hunger.
Kirk is responsible for Concern’s U.S. funded programs and policy, a portfolio totalling more than $60 million USD, that is operative in over 18 countries, reaching over 8 million persons.

4.30 – 5.30 pm: Reception hosted by the Pilgrimage Center. This is also an opportunity to tour the Museum.

6.00 pm: Event ends. Dinner on your own in New Haven.
https://www.michaelmcgivneycenter.org/en/index.html
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g33851-New_Haven_Connecticut.html

Friday, 3 June: Assembly Room, Centre for Religion at Quinnipiac

10.00 to 12.00. Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger ROUNDTABLE.
Confirmed Contributors include: Rebecca Abbott (Dr Charles Strutt and the orphan emigration scheme to Australia); Professor Christine Kinealy (William Rathbone V, a philanthropist from Liverpool); Dr Jason King (Stephen De Vere, eye-witness to Canadian emigration); Dr Maureen Murphy (Asenath Nicholson, an American eye-witness); Dr Gerard Moran (Sir Robert and Lady Caroline Gore Booth of Lissadell); Peter Murphy (Jewish Donations); Sandy O’Hare (Lady Sligo of Westport House); Dr Catherine Shannon (Patrick Donahoe of the Boston Pilot). Moderated by Kirk Prichard.

12.00– 1.00 pm: Book Launch (Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger and More Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger) and Reception.

1.00 pm: Conference ends. Slán abhaile

Accommodation: for people coming from out of town, we recommend you stay at the Clarion Hotel on Whitney Avenue, which is offering a special Quinnipiac rate ($99 plus tax) and includes breakfast. They also have a swimming pool and are pet friendly (phone - 203 288 3831):
www.choicehotels.com/connecticut/hamden/clarion-hotels/ct067?mc=llgoxxpx

Thank You to: The Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven, The Centre for Religion at Quinnipiac, and the Emigrant Support Programme (Ireland), and Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac, for sponsoring parts of this conference.

05/13/2022

Learn more about the work being done by our partners in Ireland - the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park - in a newly released video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wivTDyhSRMM

And don't forget to register for the conference, 'Heroes of Black '47', to be held at Quinnipiac from 1 to 3 June 2022, with:

[email protected]

05/02/2022

Save the Date

'Heroes of Black '47'. An in-person conference will be hosted by the Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University 1 to 3 June 2022.

The event is free, but registration necessary. To secure your place, contact:

[email protected]

Full programme to follow

05/02/2022

reminder !
if you missed yesterday's programme on the Famine Irish in Chicago, you can still watch:

The Famine Irish in Chicago features Professor Sean Farrell who examines some of the ways that Famine Irish emigrants helped build modern Chicago and Illinoi...

10/31/2020

How the Irish invented … Halloween

Halloween, or Samhain (literally meaning, the ‘end of summer’), is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Its ancient Irish and pagan origins are evident in The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, in what is now County Meath. This tomb, which is approximately 5,000 years old, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise, which illuminates the chamber, similar to the better-known winter solstice in Newgrange.

Samhain was also a period when the souls of the dead could visit their homes and seek hospitality, as the boundaries between the world of the living and of the dead were temporarily blurred. Not all spirits were benign and the Celts would light bonfires to keep evil spirits away. The following day, the ashes would be scattered over the fields to prevent any bad luck in the following harvest. The hot embers would be carried home in carved out turnips, hence one of the origins of jack-o-lanterns. It is thought that the Scotch-Irish settlers brought this tradition to America in the eighteenth century, but used pumpkins instead of turnips.

At Samhain, people also dressed in disguises – including wearing animal skins and heads. More practically, Samhain marked the time for slaughtering the livestock in time for the approaching winter.

With the coming of Christianity to Ireland, Samhain and other pagan festivals were incorporated into the Christian calendar, but many traditions continued.

10/23/2020

New Publication by Director of the Institute

Black Abolitionists in Ireland: A Book & Film Launch'':
on 28 October (2pm ET, 6pm Irish time), the Embassy will celebrate Ireland’s Black History Month by hosting the launch of Black Abolitionists in Ireland, an essential new work by Professor Christine Kinealy which traces the stories of ten black abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, who travelled to Ireland in the decades before the American Civil War to win support for their cause. Marking the occasion, we will also premiere a new short film, commissioned by the Embassy and created by the African American Irish Diaspora Network, celebrating the 175th anniversary of Douglass's historic Irish visit.

To register for this event, visit:
www.eventbrite.ie/e/black-abolitionists-in-ireland-a-black-history-month-book-film-launch-tickets-125330594181

Professor Christine Kinealy is Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University. She has published extensively on the Great Hunger and the anti-slavery movement in Ireland. For more information about her latest book, “Black Abolitionists in Ireland” (Routledge, 2020) visit:

www.routledge.com/Black-Abolitionists-in-Ireland/Kinealy/p/book/9780367225339

Embassy launch of Christine Kinealy’s 'Black Abolitionists in Ireland' & ''Agitate', a new film on Frederick Douglass's historic Irish tour

10/21/2020

Famine Hero: James Hack Tuke. Dr Gerard Moran talks about his hero in Sunday’s Great Famine Voices.

James Hack Tuke was born in York in the north of England in September 1819, the son of a prosperous tea merchant, and Priscilla Hack. The Tukes were members of the Society of Friends community and heavily involved in philanthropic work, which included playing a major role in the York Retreat, which undertook pioneered and compassionate work for the insane, the first such institution in Britain.

Following the second failure of the potato crop in 1846, the Society of Friends became heavily involved in private relief operations in Ireland. In late 1846, Tuke encountered poverty, famine and death when he travelled to Ireland with fellow Quakers, William E. Forster and his father. This included a humanitarian mission to Donegal where he found the inmates of the Glenties workhouse to be half-starved and half-naked :

The day before they had but one meal of oatmeal and water, and at the time of our visit had not sufficient food in the house for the day’s supply … Their bedding consisted of dirty straw, in which they were laid in rows on the floor; even as many as six persons being crowded under one rug; and we did not see a blanket at all. The rooms were hardly bearable for filth. The living and the dying were stretched side by side beneath the same miserable covering. No wonder that disease and pestilence were filling the infirmary, and that the pale, haggard countenance of the poor boys and girls told of sufferings, which it was impossible to contemplate without pity.

Tuke returned the following year, again travelling to the most destitute parts of Ireland. He was critical of both the response of the British government and of absentee or heartless landowners.

Tuke never forgot what he had witnessed as a young man. When he heard that famine had returned to the west of Ireland after 1879, he was determined to help. He realised that both immediate and longer-term measures were necessary. In regard to the former, Tuke put in place a well-funded and well-organized emigration scheme to North America. To learn more, watch the video and join us, with special guest, Dr Gerard Moran, on Sunday. Please note, it will be at the new time of 3.00 pm EST. Visit the Great Famine Voices website for further details.

10/14/2020

175 th Anniversary of Frederick Douglass's visit to Ireland and of appearance of the potato blight. Great Famine Voices celebrates both.

The weekly Famine Heroes programme will focus on a very special hero - Frederick Douglass. Join us on Sunday to be part of a discussion about this international champion of human rights and his relationship with Ireland.

Frederick Douglass in Ireland short film now available on the link below:

https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgreatfaminevoices.ie%2Ffamine-heroes%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cchristine.kinealy%40quinnipiac.edu%7C4bb8c177111646547bbe08d8702e7992%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C0%7C637382692196172883&sdata=SNsdSZpAxFuAYkr%2BfeDnpc7eO0duR6JIVdSKr7TCziU%3D&reserved=0

The film gives an overview of Frederick Douglass’s life-changing time spent in Ireland at the beginning of the Great Famine in 1845-1846. Irish actor Kwaku Fortune reflects on Douglass’s legacy for new communities in Ireland.

Please join us and special guests for a post-show discussion with the film makers on Zoom on Sunday, October 18th at 7pm Irish Time, 2pm Eastern Standard Time in North America (invitation details in link above)

10/09/2020

Imagine—John Lennon at 80
Happy Birthday to a Legend

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man …

Friday, 9 October 2020 marks what would have been the 80th birthday of rock legend, John Lennon, a founder of the Beatles, and a singer, song-writer and social activist.

John was born in Liverpool in the north of England—a city sometimes referred to as the 33rd county of Ireland or East Dublin, because its Irish roots were so evident. True to form, John’s ancestors were Irish. His grandfather, James Lennon, had been born in Dublin in 1858. He, like so many of the post-Famine generation, emigrated to seek better prospects of employment. However, while the majority of these emigrants travelled to North America, James settled in Liverpool—usually the only option for those who could not afford to go further afield. Brought up by his Aunt Mimi, John never knew his Irish family, yet he identified strongly with that part of his heritage.

In 1960, John, together with fellow Liverpudlians, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, formed the Beatles. Ringo Starr did not join them until 1962, by which time they had come under the professional guidance of manager, Brian Epstein and producer, George Martin. Towards the end of the year, they had their first hit, “Love Me Do,” and Beatlemania was born.

Early in the Beatle’s career, they played in Ireland: in Dublin and Belfast in November 1963, and again in Belfast a year later. On each occasion, fans queued all night to get a ticket to the show. A display of ‘Beatlemania’ which accompanied their time in Dublin, led to the Belfast police ‘bracing themselves;’ for similar scenes in the city. In what was known as ‘Operation Beatle’, extra police were on duty and crash barriers were erected. The Beatles were met at the border and taken by a secret route to Belfast. A curmudgeonly report of the Beatles’ first visit appeared in the regional paper, the Sligo Champion:
The Beatles have come and gone. During their short stay they collected—I estimate— some £2,000 from the teenagers of Dublin: were the cause a near-riot and much inconvenience to thousands of adult Dubliners. I sincerely hope that they never come again.

After Dublin they went to Belfast where in another two-show stand they collected about £2,000. This is not bad going for a group of young men.

The article concluded with an appeal to the government to “exclude the Beatles, the Cockroaches and the Bugs—whatever they call themselves—from Irish cinemas and Irish dance-halls.” Despite this heartfelt plea, in November 1964, the Beatles played in the King’s Hall in Belfast. Demand was so great to see them that a second show was organized.
In the wake of “Bloody Sunday,” when 14 unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry were killed by the British Army (13 died on the day, one later), John (with his second wife Yoko) penned two songs “Luck of the Irish” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” which appeared on his Some Time in New York City album (1972). Paul McCartney, now estranged from John, who also had two Irish grandparents, also felt moved to respond to the events in Derry, penning only two days after Bloody Sunday, “Give Ireland back to the Irish.” Both John and Paul’s songs were banned from broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, by the popular Radio Luxembourg, and by other broadcasters and radio programmes as far away as New Zealand.

In 1967, John bought an island off the coast of Mayo—Dorinish Island in Clew Bay—and he applied to Mayo County Council for permission to build a home there. In an interview some years later, he was asked where he would like to be when he was 64—a reference to the Beatles’ whimsical song “When I’m 64.” John responded that he wanted to be living on his Irish island with Yoko. Tragically, he never got a chance to live that dream or to celebrate his 64th birthday. On 8 December 1980, John was killed outside his home in New York. He was aged 40.

Although John died almost 40 years ago, his rich musical catalogue and his powerful vision of a better world based on peace, social justice, and love, live on.

Christine Kinealy
This article is dedicated to Michael Kinealy (1955-2017) who loved John and loved Ireland. Sadly, he too, never got see his 64th birthday.

08/29/2020

Michelle Miller of CBS honours the 175th anniversary of Frederick Douglass in Ireland

This weekend marks the 175th anniversary of Frederick Douglass – then a 27-year-old ‘fugitive slave’ – arriving in Ireland. He intended to stay for four days, but was made to feel so welcome that he stayed for four months, describing the experience as ‘transformative’ and the ‘happiest times’ of his life.

This morning, CBS ran a feature on this anniversary, which included interviews with Nettie Douglass, a descendant of Frederick, Daniel Mulhall, the Ambassador of Ireland to the United States of America, Dennis Brownlee, the founder of the African American Irish Diaspora Network, and Christine Kinealy, Director of the Great Hunger Institute. It also showed the beautiful statue of Frederick, by sculptor Andrew Edwards, which is currently on loan to the Institute and is on display in the Law School at Quinnipiac.

If you would like to see the feature, visit:

https://twitter.com/cbsthismorning/status/1299683214106259456

08/03/2020

John Hume (1937-2020) RIP

The world mourns the loss of yet another civil rights icon, John Hume.

John was born a Catholic in the city of Derry, at a time when Catholics were second class citizens in Northern Ireland, even being denied full voting rights. As the civil rights movement developed in the late 1960s, inspired by events in America, John emerged as a leader. Despite the peaceful protests being met with violence – culminating in Bloody Sunday in 1972, when 14 unarmed protestors where killed by British paratroopers – John never wavered in his commitment to employing peaceful means only. In the early 1990s, John was involved in talks with the leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, an action that brought him much condemnation. The talks, however, were to prove a vital step in the move towards the Peace Process Agreement in 1998.

John’s contributions to civil rights and to peace were widely recognized, he being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Award—the only person to receive these three major peace awards. But he was also truly a man of the people on both sides of the Irish border. In 2010, John was named as ‘Ireland’s Greatest’ in a national poll, an honour that made him particularly proud.

In his later years, John suffered from dementia. He would sometimes take himself on a ‘wee walkabout’ on the streets of his beloved Derry, with a friendly word for everyone he encountered, whether he knew them or not, until he was returned to the loving care of his wife, Pat. As one of my friends from Derry explained to me, ‘John looked after us for decades; now it is our turn to look after him’.

John made the phrase, ‘We shall overcome’, his own. As we face dark days ahead, these three words can provide a torchlight and a pathway to a better future.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. May his soul be on God's right hand.

07/29/2020

Irish American Campfire

The Irish American community's Big Irish Echo Campfire, on Aug 28, will focus on how it will emerge from COVID stronger and celebrate the strong bond between the US and Ireland.
When it was thought the solution to the coronavirus crisis would be a fairly straightforward 12-week lockdown, most Irish organizations across the US were hopeful that their activities would resume before summer was out.

Sadly, the virus has continued to roil the country, upending lives, and disrupting normality.

Now that it’s clear the COVID emergency will be more a marathon test of endurance and resolve than a short, if painful, sprint, it’s time to gather the Irish American community together to agree on a roadmap out of the swamp in which we find ourselves.

And what better place to gather friends than around a campfire?

Thus was born the Big Irish Echo Campfire, scheduled for Friday 28 August, online, and with a cast spanning the nation.
The chat around the campfire will focus on how Irish America can not just survive this threat but emerge stronger and better. And there’ll be songs and dance too, as you might expect around the campfire.

And, of course, there’s also the small matter of ensuring the bridge to Ireland remains open as we keep faith in the belief that better days lie ahead.

The Campfire will be the most expansive and most inclusive event ever held in Irish America. Registration is free and already speakers, 70 in total, have been marshaled to address the big topics preoccupying Irish American activists.

If you want to register, please visit:

Our Theme: Irish America Coming Together to Survive the Pandemic and To Emerge Stronger and Better (while ensuring the bridge to Ireland remains open).