In May 1847, 1,490 people left the estate in Strokestown, County Roscommon, Ireland, and walked 155 kilometres to Dublin and were then transported to Liverpool where they boarded four coffin ships bound for Quebec. At least half of the passengers — 700 people according to many— did not survive the journey.
This week, hundreds of people across five Irish counties are taking part in a re-enactment of that emigrant walk during the worst year of the Famine — and the University of Toronto has been conducting research about the 1,490 who were forced to leave their homes in Strokestown 168 years ago.
Professor Mark McGowan from the University of Toronto who with Dr Ciarán Reilly from the National University of Ireland Maynooth is investigating the fate of those who made it to Canada, pointed out that the figure does not take account of burials at sea and the children who never made it to the new world. “I believe the real figure may be as high as 800,” he said.
According to the Meath Chronicle, “The group, who subsequently became known as the Missing 1,490, were tenants of the local landlord Major Denis Mahon who offered them the grim choice of emigration (through ‘assisted passage’), starvation on their blighted potato patch farms or a place in the terrifying local workhouse.”
As a result of research at Maynooth University and Strokestown Famine Museum, the identities of the survivors and those who died at sea have been established.
Three PhD students at the University of Toronto are now tracing the lives of the families of the Missing 1,490 from Strokestown, and I expect many genealogists look forward to learning more about this project.
The famine emigrant walk is part of the launch of the official program for the inaugural Irish Famine Summer School. The walk began April 18 and will end today, April 22.
The first ever Irish Famine Summer School includes three days of well-known experts from all over the globe — Canada, US, Northern Ireland, Australia, Europe, and the Republic of Ireland, and also includes the Fourth Annual International Famine Conference with more than 30 papers on the ‘Local and Regional Impact’ of the Great Famine.
More information is available in this Meath Chronicle article.
