Áine Ryan
EVOCATIVE readings from Brendan Graham’s Great Famine book, The Whitest Flower, interspersed with moving songs by Cathy Jordan of Dervish, will mark the opening of Westport’s National Famine Commemoration 2010 in the hallowed and atmospheric Holy Trinity Church, Westport.
The week-long programme, set to start on Monday night next, May 10, will culminate at 1pm with a poignant ceremony in the shadow of John Behan’s Famine Ship sculpture, in Murrisk Millennium Park, in the shadow of holy mountain, Croagh Patrick.
This State ceremony, which will have a significant Murrisk community input, will include wreath laying, military honours and a national flag observance.
On the previous night, Saturday, May 15, John O’Shea, Chief Executive of GOAL, will deliver a Famine Lecture on the subject of contemporary world hunger, also in Holy Trinity Church.
The busy programme also includes a talk by acclaimed archaeologist, Michael Gibbons on The Legacy of Famine on the Landscape, while Curator of the Clew Bay Heritage Centre, Ms Bronach Joyce will lead two historical walking tours, highlighting aspects of famine in Westport town and the Clew Bay.
A session of traditional music will be held at Teach na Miasa and Murrisk Community Centre, both at the foot of Croagh Patrick and in the shadow of John Behan’s redolent famine sculpture.
Furthermore, art historian, Catherine Marshall will deliver a talk at the Custom House Studios on Visual Representations of the Great Famine, with a talk also in the National Museum of Country Life, by Professor Peter Grey, on Religion and the Great Famine.
Appropriately, a parallel international famine commemoration event will be held in New York, where many of those who survived the arduous sea voyage landed on Ellis Island.
