Honouring the Famine Diaspora and the Guardians of their Heritage at Home and Overseas
Following in the footsteps of the Famine emigrants, the main trail of the Global Irish Famine Way (GIFW) now stretches along the eastern seaboard of Canada, 15 locations and growing. The main spine runs from Newfoundland to Hamiliton and Niagara. It has been quick work since our launch in St John’s NL in May 2024, thanks to the passion and commitment of Irish and Irish Canadian leaders and communities.
As International Co-Convenors based in Ireland, Caroilin Callery and I want to pay heartfelt tribute to the leadership of our Co-Convenors in Canada, Professor Mark McGowan and local Ottawa historian Michael McBane. Mark has been associated with the story of Strokestown for many years, diving deep into its rich archives and publishing, among many other books, two great and highly recommended books: Hunger and Hope: The Irish Famine Migration from Strokestown, Roscommon in 1847, and Finding Molly Johnson about what happened to the 1700 Irish famine orphans in Canada. Michael was my chief guide to the capital region’s rich Irish heritage, including the near-forgotten location of the common grave of over 300 Famine emigrants in the heart of the city, buried under Macdonald Gardens Park.
We have now taken another major step forward with the announcement of our Co-Convenors in the United States. Hilary Beirne is a proud son of Roscommon, long settled in New York and providing leadership on a range of Irish activities, notably the New York St Patrick’s Day Parade. With ancestors who died in the Famine, Hilary brings true personal commitment and passion to the rollout of the GIFW in the United States. Professor Christine Kinealy, based at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, is a renowned historian of the Famine and a longtime supporter of the National Famine Museum. Her many renowned books on the Famine include Charity and the Great Hunger in Ireland: The Kindness of Strangers, a great and insightful read about the international response to the Famine, from Ireland and Britain to North America and India.
Local activists and Irish community groups drive the GIFW forward. They build it from the ground up, guided by the National Famine Museum, our convenors and experts.
It may sound strange to say this given that a catastrophic famine is what draws us together but along with deeply moving moments of commemoration, working with everyone has been a joy. The GIFW from its inception has been based on volunteer efforts by those of us determined to commemorate the Famine and celebrate the heroism of the Irish who survived it and prospered.
The GIFW has a vision for what the completed architecture will look like and what it will do: linking locations around Ireland with global sites associated with Famine emigration in both a physical and digital trail that will stretch over 40,000km.
The foundation of the GIFW is the National Famine Way, stretching from the National Famine Museum at Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, to the quays in Dublin.
The GIFW continues that journey overseas, following the routes taken by Famine emigrants: to Liverpool and the Britain to Canada and the United States, to South Africa and Australia. The trail is marked by Bronze Shoes. Each site has a QR code telling the local story and providing National Famine Way website and its related projects.
The GIFW draws on the commitment of the guardians of the Famine Diaspora overseas and its connections with Ireland. This global community of activists and groups relies on its own acumen and energy to recover and curate our Famine heritage overseas, from ports of disembarkation and fever sheds to common graves and heroes whose compassion offered them solace and hope. We encourage local groups to develop heritage trails in and around each of the Bronze Shoes, to tell the story of the settlement, lives, and influence of the Irish arrivals fleeing the Famine, along with the help that they received.
In addition to the trail, there is provision for Bronze Shoes to commemorate significant acts of compassion and courage in assisting the Famine refugees, the Famine Hero sites. This ranges from Indigenous assistance in Canada and the US to those who gave their lives helping the fever-stricken Irish, of whom there were over 80 fatalities in Canada alone.
The third structural element is the Famine Ports of Embarkation Project in Ireland. We count over thirty ports around the Irish coast from which survivors of the Famine fled overseas. The role of many of these ports in the exodus has been forgotten, along with the historical significance of that role and how it reshaped their local economies and history. We plan to put Bronze Shoes and QR codes in each of these ports, allowing visitors to access ships’ manifests and information on the destinations to which the departing vessels were bound. Longer term, we envisage a coastal walking trail around Ireland linking these sites. In this way, the Famine Ports of Embarkation will create a dynamic link between Ireland and the GIFW by connecting embarkation and arrival.
The Ports of Embarkation Project draws on the commitment of the guardians of Famine heritage in Ireland and its connections with the Diaspora. This community relies on its own acumen and energy to recover and curate our Famine heritage at home, from forgotten mass graves to the restoration of Work Houses and soup kitchens.
The architecture of the GIFW creates a complete experience of the Famine and its global impact. It facilitates our Diaspora to discover where they came from and encourages exploration of the local influence of their ancestors. It also encourages the descendants of Famine emigrants to return to Ireland, to touch the Bronze Shoes on the quaysides from where their forebears left, and potentially retrace their ancestors journey to their original homes.
Digitally, the GIFW will recover and collate the stories of the Famine Irish as they traversed the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and settled in far distant lands.
Already the GIFW is connecting disparate individuals and groups who are actively involved. We are only beginning. We eventually will have a very active network literally around the world. To spur this along, we are organizing the inaugural GIFW Conference in May-June 2027, with delegates from each of the countries involved.
The National Famine Museum, an initiative of the Callery family and now cared for jointly with the Irish Heritage Trust, is at the heart of the GIFW. Its focus is on the story of the Strokestown residents, sent off at great peril in 1847 to Liverpool and then Canada, some 1490 men, women, and children. The central research project at Strokestown is to find out what happened to all of them and to trace their descendants.
On one of the ships that took them across the North Atlantic, of the 470 passengers on board the Virginius, half of them died from typhus, leading to international headlines and the term coffin-ship.
The GIFW traces the fate of all Famine emigrants so it would seem appropriate to locate a museum dedicated to them as part of the Strokestown complex, a beacon at home for our Diaspora. This should be a campus not just for visits and exhibitions but of research and learning. So we have begun discussing the establishment of a purpose-built Global Irish Famine Way Museum at Strokestown.
The GIFW began in earnest with the arrival of the Bronze Shoes on board the Irish Research Vessel Celtic Explorer at St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador in May 2024. From the outset, we were determined to demonstrate that understanding the Famine was not just a study of history. It was a case study of a humanitarian disaster in which decisions determined the lives and deaths of millions of Irish: decisions by British government ministers and senior officials, Westminster, and the crown. They were, after all, governing Ireland under direct rule for the previous five decades and made critical decisions in response to the disaster.
Famines are the results of decisions, usually by governments, sometimes by armies. The causation and decisions of the Famine in Ireland are common to many such humanitarian disasters then and since. So is the compassionate response at home and overseas. That is why we dedicate the GIFW to all those who show hope through compassion and success through opportunity to the stranger on your shore. That message is as relevant today as it was to the Famine refugees whose exodus created our Diaspora.
If you want to find out more, or submit an expression of interest in establishing Bronze Shoes, click here https://nationalfamineway.ie/global-irish-famine-way/
As the GIFW is developed by local volunteer efforts, please share this blog and link.
Eamonn
Dr. Eamonn McKee
26 March 2026
eamonncmckee 