Famine

Ireland has a long and storied history of invasion, oppression, emigration, immigration, and civil unrest. But the Great Famine of 1845 - 1849, in which approximately one million people died of starvation or associated diseases, and another one million emigrated (and thus Ireland lost 20-25% of its population of 8.5 million; in 2019, the population of Ireland and Northern Ireland is approximately 6.75 million), is arguably the most heart-breaking and infuriating event that the island has had to endure.

We learned that in Black '47 (the year 1847), 4,000 ships carrying food products grown in Ireland left Irish ports for other lands, while over 400,000 people died.

It seems that many of Matt's emigrant ancestors left Ireland during this period--and it became clear that it was commonplace for "new" Catholic Churches to be built in these same years. In other words, the Church was more interested in erecting new buildings than in spending the money to help feed their communities.

An infamous story is of Strokestown's Missing 1,490. These are the 1,490 tenants of the Strokestown Estate in County Roscommon that were forced to emigrate in 1847 by walking (escorted by a bailiff) from the estate to Dublin, a journey of nearly 104 miles. If they survived the journey, they were usually placed on coffin ships--often bound for Canada or the U.S. 30% of those who set sail on coffin ships didn't survive the journey. But miraculously, no lives were lost on the Jeanie Johnston. According to Wikipedia, "Between 1848 and 1855, the Jeanie Johnston made 16 voyages to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore, and New York. On average, the length of the transatlantic journey was 47 days. The most passengers she ever carried was 254, from Tralee to Quebec on 17 April 1852. To put this number in perspective, the replica ship is only licensed to carry 40 people including crew."

Here is the replica of the Jeanie Johnston in the River Liffey, which can be toured (we didn't get a chance to do so):

We did visit the Famine Memorial sculpture, commemorating the famine victims in general and the Strokestown's Mission 1,490 in particular. This sculpture was created by Rowan Gillespie and unveiled in 1997:

A closeup of one of the figures:

A man carrying a child:

A starving dog follows the group, hoping for handouts that never come:

This plaque reads, "'Famine' by Rowan Gillespie, Unveiled by Her Excellency President Robinson, Commissioned and Donated to the People of Ireland, by Norma Smurfit, 29th May 1997, ‘A procession fraught with most striking and most melancholy interest, wending its painful and mournful way along the whole line of the river, to where the beautiful pile of the Custom house is distinguishable in the far distance…,’ Irish Quarterly Review, 1854”:

You can recreate the journey of the Strokestown's Missing 1,490. This photo is of an informational panel near the Famine Memorial that descibes the "National Famineway"; for more details, go to http://nationalfamineway.ie/.