Press Release Detail

Remembering the Irish Famine

07/01/2012

On Saturday, June 30, the Colonel Patrick O’Rorke Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), in conjunction with Fisher’s Irish Studies Program, gathered to rededicate the Great Hunger Memorial on campus.

Mr. Rick Faro, President of the AOH, addressed the group and stressed the importance of keeping alive the memory of the “Great Hunger,” so that it never happens again. The famine, some say, is the defining event in all of Irish history. When the potato blight struck in 1845, the population of Ireland was over eight million. By the time the famine ended in 1852, the population was only five million. Of the three million lost, over one million died and the rest emigrated to England, America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other parts of the world.

Dr. Tim Madigan, Director of the Irish Studies Program at Fisher, indicated that the new program at the College will enable students to learn about—and remember—Ireland’s past.