Please join members and friends of the Museum of Newport Irish History for the kick-off presentation of it 22nd Annual Lecture Series with Dr. Christine Kinealy, whose lecture is titled "Forgotten Heroes of Ireland's Great Hunger." The lecture is made possible by a generous gift from Virginia Pittsley, given in memory of Dr. Cheryl A. McCarthy.
The illustrated lecture will be presented at 6:00 p.m. in-person at the Wyndham Newport Hotel and live-streamed via Zoom.
Reservations are required for both in-person and virtual participation and a fee may apply.
Click the Event Website link for detail and reservations.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and light hors d'oeuvres & cash bar will be available.
TALK OVERVIEW:
The tragedy that struck Ireland between 1845 and 1852 is often viewed through the lens of cold-hearted bureaucrats, greedy merchants, or indifferent landlords, who put profit, principles of political economy, and prejudice, above the need to save the lives of the Irish poor. But this is only part of the story of the Great Hunger. This presentation will examine the contributions of several men and women who risked their lives—and sometimes their livelihoods—in caring for the sick and the starving. A number of them had no connection to Ireland. As Jacques Judah Lyons, Rabbi of Shearith Israel in New York, told his Congregation in 1847, "There is but one connecting link between us and the sufferers…That link, my brethren, is humanity."
GUEST SPEAKER BIO:
Professor Christine Kinealy is Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Christine has published extensively on Ireland’s Great Hunger and the Irish Abolition movement. Her publications include the award-winning, This Great Calamity, The Great Hunger in Ireland, and two recently edited volumes, Heroes of the Great Hunger (2021) and More Heroes of the Great Hunger (2022). The latter two books were inspired by the front-line workers, unsung heroes of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Christine’s research on the Great Famine has been widely acclaimed. In 2017, she received an Emmy for her contribution to the documentary, ‘The Great Hunger and the Irish Diaspora.’ In 2019, she was one of the five international historians who launched The National Famine Way in Ireland, which recreated the 100-mile walk from Roscommon to Dublin, undertaken by 1,490 tenants of Major Mahon in 1847. Hundreds would die before they reached their ultimate destination, Canada.
Based on her research on Frederick Douglass’s time in Ireland in 1845 and 1846, Christine has created a number of walking trails that follow in Douglass's footsteps in Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford and Youghal.
