Count Mayo Ireland -- Doolough Pass by the Famine Walk Memorial
rainy, cold Fall day but we were amazed by the scenery...
Famine Walk 2017
For 30 years Afri has walked the famine road through the Doolough Valley in County Mayo. It is a walk like no other, abounding in memory, music, history, solidarity and spectacular beauty; retracing the steps of the dispossessed of the past and forging solidarity with the banished and oppressed of today.
The 2017 walk linked the experience of Irish people fleeing on coffin ships or being condemned to workhouses during An Gorta Mór in the nineteenth century with those crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy, rickety boats today, some of whom, if they survive, may end up in Direct Provision Centres for asylum seekers in Ireland.
National Potato Famine Monument - County Mayo - Ireland
Croagh Patrick in the back ground and an amazing sunset to see the National Famine Monument in County Mayo in Murrisk.
Murrisk (Irish: Muraisc) is one of the Baronial divisions of County Mayo[1] and also a village in County Mayo, Ireland, on the south side of Clew Bay, about 8 km west of Westport and 4 km east of Lecanvey.
Murrisk lies at the foot of Croagh Patrick and is the starting-point for pilgrims who visit the mountain. Every year, on the last Sunday of July, thousands of people converge on the village to make the pilgrimage. There is a small interpretative centre in the village, which focuses on Croagh Patrick.
National Famine Memorial-Co.Mayo-Ireland
To honour the memory of all who died, suffered and emigrated due to the Great Famine of 1845 - 1850, and the victims of all famines.
The Memorial was unveiled by the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, on 20 July 1997.
Famine Walk Doolough Co. Mayo 2011
During the Famine in Ireland more than 2.5 million people died of hunger and many more emigrated to America to escape starvation.
Like the rest of Mayo the Famine had a devastating effect on the Louisburgh area. Still etched in the landscape to the present day are the ridges and hollows of the potato beds and the ruins of many tiny stone dwellings which failed to house such impossibly large families at that time.
In 1841 the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi were forced from their homelands to journey many hundred miles cross country to Oklahoma. Many of them perished on what became known as the 'Trail of Tears'. A report in 'The Arkansas Intellegencer' of April 3rd 1847 stated that the Choctaw Indians, on learning of the Irish Famine, sent money to a famine relief fund in Ireland.
Every year a famine walk takes place, during the month of May, from Doolough to Louisburgh recalling the Irish Famine. This walk is often joined by one of the Indians from the Choctaw Nation.
Pictured here is Bishop Pierre Dorcilien, Port au Prince Haiti and Dr. Patrick Treacy Dublin, Ireland
County Mayo: Deserted Famine Village on Achill Island
We visited the beautiful island of Achill in County Mayo. This deserted village dates from a time before Ireland's Great Famine.
Famine Walk 2018
Saturday 19th May 2018 saw the 30th anniversary of the Doolough Famine Walk. Afri first organised the walk in 1988 to commemorate the Great Hunger of 1845-50. Regions such as Mayo illustrated how a natural setback such as potato blight can mutate to disaster in the context of unchecked market forces, lack of democratic structures and resources, and a pitiless, moralistic ideology. While some £9.5 million was eventually spent on late and poorly-designed ‘Relief’, £14 million went to sustain the military and police forces.
Our walk retraces a journey of horror which occurred on 30th/31st March 1849. Two poor-law commissioners were to assess people in Louisburgh, entitling them as ‘paupers’ to meagre relief rations. The inspection never happened, but the people were instructed to appear at Delphi Lodge at 7 the following morning. They walked the hilly road in wintry, even snowy, conditions. At Delphi Lodge they were refused food, or admission to the workhouse, and so began their weary return journey, on which hundreds, died.
Afri, drawing on the local history of Louisburgh and Doolough, recalls the dead and displaced of the Great Hunger – and all those facing the same grotesque and avoidable cruelties in today’s world, from the so-called ‘War on Terror’ to the indignities of ‘Direct Provision’. We walk the famine road to remember the causes of hunger and poverty in our world – political, military, economic and environmental – and our failure to learn the lessons of our own history. Our Walk Leaders eloquently represent the spirit of resistance and transformation:
In the twentieth-anniversary year of the Good Friday Agreement we welcome Richard Moore, who was blinded as a 10-year-old child by a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He reacted by founding Children in Crossfire, declaring: “I learned to see life in a different way. I may have lost my sight, but I have my vision”.
2018 is also significant in that it marks the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, and in this context, we are honoured to welcome Fatin Al Tamimi, Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
The extraordinary voice of Lisa Lambe provided the music for this year’s walk. We were delighted to have Lisa as part of this year’s walk line up.
Felicity Lawrence - Afri Famine Walk
Felicity Lawrence speaking at the the annual Afri Famine Walk of Remembrance from Doolough to Louisburgh in Co Mayo, Ireland. Felicity is a special correspondent with the Guardian newspaper. Further info about her at the below link:
Filmed & edited by Wonderfulife Productions
wonderfulifeproductions@yahoo.com
Mayo's Forgotten Famine Girls. Commemoration
Ballina
RI Irish Famine Memorial violated/defaced
Rhode Island Irish famine Memorial defaced by Vandals.
Famine Walk Of Boycott Support
Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah and Irish South African boycott activist Cathryn O’Reilly speak at the Afri Famine Walk 2016 about the Irish tradition of boycott in County Mayo where the word was coined by the Irish Land League in 1880.
County Mayo was the site of Lord Erne’s estate, where his agent, former British Army Captain Charles Boycott, embarked on a ruthless programme of forced eviction of tenant farmers. Local members of the Irish Land League responded with the mass social isolation strategy they called “boycott”.
Cathryn O’Reilly was one of eleven shopworkers who refused to handle South African goods in Dublin’s Dunnes Stores in 1984. They boycott strike lasted over to years. She explains how they did it, and how she supports the BDS campaign of boycott against Israel while the occupation of Palestine proceeds.
Rafeef Ziadah is a celebrated poet and member of the Palestinian committee of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the state of Israel. While in Ireland, she was received by President Michael D. Higgins for an official Courtesy Call at his residence, planted an olive and an ash tree with Dublin’s Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh, and performed to a full house at Ireland’s national theatre, the Abbey Theatre founded by WB Yeats in 1904.
Remembering the Famine | ‘Doolough Tragedy’ explained by Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin
The Great Famine continued much longer in the West of Ireland. Particularly in isolated places like Doolough. In 1849, well after the darkest years of the famine, the poor here were in particularly destitute circumstances. Remembered for the ‘Doolough Tragedy’, this valley witnessed one of the blackest events in Irish history.
Only four miles away is Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s holiest pilgrimage site, at the foot of which is Ireland’s National Famine Memorial. But here, only a simple stone cross, the Doolough Famine Memorial, remains in memory of the victims of the famine in this area.
In the winter of 1849, hundreds of emaciated and scantily clad men, women and children walked approximately 12 miles from Louisburg to Delphi Lodge to appeal their case to the local Poor Law guardians. Tragically, the relief commissioners turned them away empty handed. On the way back, many of the walkers were lifted by the winds and carried into the lake.
The monument was erected in 1994 to remember the suffering. Today the mountains are sparsely populated but they were home to many Irish before the famine.
* See Delphi Lodge today (Established 1830)
Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin
An Gorta Mor
Remembering the Irish Famine at the Famine memorial in Murrisk, Westport, Co, Mayo.
Afri Famine Walk - Doolough to Louisburgh - May 2010
Coverage of the annual Afri Famine Walk of Remembrance from Doolough to Louisburgh in Co Mayo, Ireland.
More information on Afri can be found at:
Filmed & edited by Wonderfulife Productions
wonderfulifeproductions@yahoo.com
IT Irish Famine Memorial
Independence Trail
Famine Walk 2015
Food Sovereignty, Global Warming and Resisting Militarism. This year's walk leaders were Maitet Ledesma and Sharon Staples.
Search for Irish Famine Burial Mound
Went in search of a Famine Burial Mound at Silver Strand in Co Mayo.....
Doolough Valley, Co. Mayo, Ireland
The memorial to the victims in Doolough valley. The Doolough Tragedy is an event that took place during the Great Irish Famine in southwest County Mayo.
MUSIC
Imaginary by Broken Elegance & Nomyn
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
Music provided by Audio Library
Landscape - Killary Harbour to Doolough Memorial - County Mayo - Ireland
Paysage - Fjord de Killary jusqu'au au Mémorial de Doolough - Comté de Mayo - Irlande
Le fjord de Killary, situé dans le comté de Mayo, est le plus long fjord d'Irlande. La route R335 longe ce fjord et nous permet d'admirer de magnifiques paysages.
Cependant, la prudence est de mise car cette route est plutôt étroite et il y a une multitude de moutons qui broutent l'herbe aux abords de la route.
Nous nous sommes rendus jusqu'au mémorial de Doolough (coordonnées GPS: 53°39'58.2N 9°46'53.7W) qui rend hommage à un triste événement survenu dans la nuit du 30 mars 1849.
Cette nuit-là, plus de 400 irlandais sont décédés des suites de la Grande Famine. Ils avaient été convoqués pour se présenter à un ancien pavillon de chasse le jour suivant et s'ils refusaient, ils perdaient toute aide de l'État.
Ils avaient 20 km à parcourir pour se rendre à cet endroit. Cependant, la fatigue, la faim, le froid et la maladie ont eu raison d'eux. Ils ont péri.
Pour commémorer cet événement, une croix en pierre a été érigée face au lac. Celle-ci comporte une citation de Ghandi:
« How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings? »
(Comment les hommes peuvent-ils se sentir honorés par l’humiliation de leurs semblables ?)
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Heartwarming par Kevin MacLeod est protégée par une licence Creative Commons Attribution (
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