Annual Famine Commemoration to be held in Newry
The annual Famine Commemoration will be held in Newry this year.
The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht today announced that the commemoration event will take place in Newry on Saturday 26th September.
It is the eighth year in which the Great Famine is being marked with a formal tribute and the first time that it is being held in the north.
An estimated one million people died during the Irish famine while over a million more emigrated to Canada, America and England.
The Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure Carál Ní Chuilín welcomed the announcement. “This landmark initiative in Newry will help communities across this island to better understand the impact and legacy of the famine on all sections and traditions in our society.
“The famine was a time of unspeakable horror and hardship throughout Ireland. It was not held at bay by creed or boundaries drawn on any map.
“It is important that we take time to remember the plight of our ancestors who died from starvation and disease or who were forced into exile, never to return to their native shores,” she told Newry Times.
“Nor can we forget those who died on the famine ships as they tried to escape their plight in Ireland or the grief and pain of those who were left behind. It truly was a terrible time.
“No part of the island was spared the terrible atrocity of ‘an gorta mor’ (the great hunger) and it is fitting that the annual famine commemoration should be held in the north for the first time,” Ní Chuilín added.
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