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Date Posted: 08:11:29 09/02/02 Mon
Author: Co. Donegal
Subject: Lecture

PRESS RELEASE GREAT HUNGER LECTURE

A BUSY period of commemoration lies ahead for many people engaged in commemorating the Famine of 1845-52, during which millions suffered, perished or emigrated. The commemorative programme, which is part of a partnership over recent years, between Donegal County Council and a number of community-led groups, was launched on Saturday afternoon.

A commemorative stone was unveiled at Drumkeen Famine Garden, located half-way between Letterkenny and Ballybofey, by two of the most senior local villagers, on Saturday. Similar ceremonies took place at Dunfanaghy’s Famine Graveyard and at Burtonport’s Alt a’Chorainn, on Sunday.

Among the panel of invited speakers at Drumkeen were the Derry author and historian Fionnbarra O’Dochartaigh, secretary to the Northwest Great Hunger Memorials Committee, and Tyrone-born Owen Rodgers, the President of the influential Irish Famine/Genocide Committee of New York.

Mr. Rodgers spoke of the New York legislative bill drafted by Assemblyman Joseph Crowley, and signed into law on October 6, 1996, which mandates the teaching of the mass starvation in Ireland as part of the state’s human rights curriculum, in all schools and colleges. He also said that the IF/GC was planning an International Tribunal of jurists who will be asked to rule on legal accountability for the mass starvation of the Irish during the famine era. Before introducing Mr. O’Dochartaigh he praised the commemorative efforts of many bodies and individuals in Derry City and Co. Donegal, and pledged active support from his own organization, which embraces many activists and prominent people across the United States and Canada.

Mr. O’Dochartaigh, who in recent times addressed the elected councils of Derry, Sligo, Donegal, Strabane and Omagh spoke of the creation of the Paupers’ Memorial at Ballyoan Cemetery in which 370 remains now rested within eleven mass graves after their removal from the Union Workhouse on Glendermott Road, in the Waterside district of the city. He spoke also of the 72 victims of the paddle-steamer ‘Londonderry’ who were recklessly suffocated within 36 hours of their departure from Sligo, and whose remains were laid on Derry docks on Sunday, December 3, 1848. He updated the large attendance on plans to erect the Northwest Great Hunger Memorial, behind Derry’s new Civic Buildings, on the quayside from where countless coffin-ships departed, and where remains were unloaded from vessels during ‘the hungry forties’. He promised that any surplus funds raised would be donated to Irish humanitarian organisations engaged in famine relief work in countries such as Sudan and Romania.

On the evening of Thursday, 10th September, at 8 p.m. the Central Library and Arts Centre, Letterkenny is host to another event, organized by the North West Great Hunger Memorials Committee. As both Mr.. O’Dochartaigh and Mr. Rodgers have accepted invitations to be guest speakers, the event will undoubtedly attract the attention of various commemorative groups, across the Northwest. A brief contribution will be made by Ms. Rosie Connolly of Letterkenny on a major memorial being erected in Phoenix, Arizona on behalf of Mrs. Roisin Dererano, who spent several months working on commemorative projects on a voluntary basis, until her recent return to the United States a few weeks ago.

The Donegal programme’s co-ordinators have indicated that later in September commemorative stones will be unveiled in Inishowen. Details will be announced in the near future.

Mr. O’Dochartaigh has also been invited to attend a locally-organized launch of his recently published work, ‘O’Doherty: People and Places’ at the Central Library, Letterkenny, on Saturday next. He has indicated that he will be present to sign copies of this extensively illustrated paperback between 2 and 4 p.m. on September 12th. There has been much media interest expressed, and while the event is open to all book-lovers some 200 special invitations have gone out to ‘Dohertys’ in and around the Letterkenny area. Books on other clans will also be available. A number of free handouts on Inishowen and the O’Dohertys, including genealogy charts, have been prepared for distribution.

Issued in the summer of 1998 by the Great Hunger Memorials Committee, c/o AOH Hall, Foyle Street, Derry BT48 6AL.

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