The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan T.D. is today, Sunday, officiating at the National Famine Commemoration in Dublin.
Today’s formal State ceremony will be held in St. Stephen’s Green, following the deferral until 2021 of the ceremony which was to have been held in Buncrana, Co. Donegal this month. As with the recent Easter and Arbour Hill Commemorations, the ceremony will be conducted in line with current health and safety guidelines and will not be open to the public. The ceremony will be available to view live nationally and internationally on RTÉ News Now, on www.rte.ie and on the RTÉ Player.
The ceremony will include military honours and a wreath laying ceremony in remembrance of all those who suffered or perished during the Famine. Wreaths will be laid by Minister Madigan on behalf of the Irish People and by the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps on behalf of the Diplomatic Community. Aimee Banks will sing Brendan Graham’s Crucán na bPáiste and the National Anthem will be performed by an Army Piper.
The Minister will also unveil a Plaque marking the first Annual Famine Commemoration held in the Custom House in 2008. This will be installed in the grounds of the Custom House later in the year.
Speaking today, Minister Madigan said:
In her poem Quarantine, the late Eavan Boland movingly evoked the efforts of a loving husband to support his wife with the last of his strength, when she said:
She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
He lifted her and put her on his back.
The heroes of the Famine that we honour today also sought to lift and carry those who fell or could not keep up. That same spirit of caring and self sacrifice that is embedded in the caring professions, is being seen again today as our health workers embrace the challenge of caring for those affected by Covid-19. We honour and respect these modern-day heroes and value their courage. Perhaps we can best show our appreciation for their work, and the efforts of their forebears during the Great Famine, by adhering to those small acts of heroism we are called upon to perform in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to come though these testing times, just as our ancestors once did.
Notes to Editor:
Images will be issued to media this afternoon.
The ceremony will be available to view live on RTÉ News Now, on www.rte.ie and on the RTÉ Player, and footage can be made available to media.
The 2020 National Famine Commemoration was to be held in Buncrana, Co. Donegal. However the ceremony which would, as in other years, feature significant community involvement has been deferred until 2021 in light of the COVID-19 situation.
This year’s ceremony will therefore follow the model used for the Easter Sunday and Arbour Hill commemorations.
The National Famine Museum Strokestown Park
(www.strokestownpark.ie/famine/roadshow/) and the Irish Heritage Trust have been running the Great Famine Voices Roadshow 2020 (www.greatfaminevoices.ie/famine-heroes/) entitled “Famine Heroes” a series of virtual events season of documentaries and online lectures since April, These “Famine Heroes” virtual events provide uplifting stories about coping with epidemic and pay tribute to caregivers, both in the mid-nineteenth century and today. They are funded by the Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme.
As part of this programme Dr Jason King and Dr Christine Kinealy will be holding an online discussion on May 17th on the theme of "Honouring Famine Heroes" reflecting the theme of Minister’s Madigan’s remarks at the Commemoration in Dublin.