The Great Famine Walking Tour

The Great Famine of 1845 to 1852 was the most cataclysmic event in Irish history. In the space of 7 years over a million people died and almost 2 million fled for their lives. On this tour you will learn the causes, costs and consequences of this tragedy.

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Highlights

Pay your respects at the National Famine Memorial
Visit the Jeanie Johnston Famine Museum
Listen to tragic contemporary descriptions of the Famine victims and see paintings of the time
Join a trained historian and hear the latest research on Ireland's tragedy
Discover the history of those Irish that escaped the Famine at the EPIC Ireland museum

Description

It has many names: Great Famine, Potato Famine, an Gorta Mór, and Drochshaol. An event so devastating and harrowing that even today 170 years later it still unleashes a wellspring of emotion from the descendants of its victims. On this tour you will learn about the real causes of the cataclysm the overtook Ireland in that key period of 1845-1852, and its legacy that lingers even into the present day. Your tour will begin at the Houses of Parliament, now the Bank of Ireland HQ. To understand the events of the Famine you must start at the loss of Irish sovereignty in 1801. The absence of a local parliament to administer Irish affairs and economy, led to a major depression in the Irish countryside and in the cities. More and more poor Irish now sought a subsistence living on the land, all the while the population ballooned to near 9 million. As you progress through the city from Dublin Castle to the former Newgate prison you will begin to understand the origins of the Famine lay not in a potato blight (which was effecting all of Europe at the time), but rather in the mismanagement of the government. At the home of the Quakers you will be introduced to the many charities, churches and private individuals that did their best to help those suffering. At the statue of William Smith O'Brien you will learn of his failed rebellion at the height of the Famine's death toll, 1848. Before you make your way to the Famine memorial you will pay a visit to the most notorious slums of 19th Century Dublin, the Monto. The legacy for Dublin of the Famine refugees streaming into the city was the creation of the worst slums in Europe, in which 50% of Dubliners lived in single room tenements. As your tour speeds towards its conclusion, you will finally arrive at the Irish Famine memorial by the river Liffey. Here you will discuss both Irish landlords and the British government's culpability for the deaths of over a million people. A controversial subject to this day, your guide will not attempt to sway your opinion one way or the other, but simply present you with the damning facts. Your next stop will be the moored Jeanie Johnston, Dublin's Famine Museum. Here you will discuss the legacy of the 2 million and more refugees that fled Ireland's cataclysm and created a global diaspora of 80 million Irish. Your final stop will be the EPIC Ireland Emigration museum where you will learn the fate of the Irish diaspora.