Over the last couple of years, Liverpool Irish Festival has been working on revitalising the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail, which includes the Irish Famine Memorial.
Today, the Liverpool Great Hunger Commemoration Committee, Conradh Na Gaeilge Learpholl and Liverpool Irish Centre, in partnership with the Festival, lead a Famine Memorial Service to mark 175-years since the start of the seven-years of Famine in Ireland, lasting 1847-1852. There will be speeches, readings and music at the memorial ground. Úna Quinn and Neil Campbell will perform a specially commissioned song.
Everyone is welcome. However, we would note that this is an outside event and we may have difficulties with sound if it is rainy or windy. We recommend dressing for the weather and bringing seats or walking aids as required. This is a standing service of roughly 30-minutes. People may gather in advance of the service.
These activities have been made possible with funds from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Following the event, release their song Those Roads, which can be found on Bandcamp, here. Please show them your support by purchasing the song.
Additionally, for those interested in the Johnny McEvoy poem, read by Tomás Ryan (Conradh Na Gaeilge), you can read it below in English and Gaeilge. You can also hear the original song version, below the poem.
The Famine [Song] Story In the year of ‘47 I saw an end to what had been Saw my neighbours, friends and family Fade before me like a dream Now the land is cold and blighted Now the crop has failed again There’s no food upon the table Fear lives in the hearts of men There’s a cloud upon the mountain And the rain is falling free There’s a shadow in the valley Where my cabin used to be All my comrades they have fallen By the roadside they have died In the fields and in the hedgerows Their hungry bones lie side by side On this ship I cross the ocean Sailing on the raging foam To the land of my tomorrow Far from my native home Scéal an Gorta Mór Sa bhliain ocht déag seacht is a daichead Chonaic mé deireadh lena raibh Chonaic mé mo chomharsana, cairde ‘s mo theaghlach Ag fail bás romham mar tromluí Tá an talamh fuar agus scriosta Teip ar an barr arís Níl aon bia ar an dtábla Maireann faitíos I gcroí na bhfear Tá scamall ar an sliabh Agus an báisteach ag titim go trom Tá scáth I lár an ghleanna Áit a mbíodh mo chábhán Ar slí na fírinne tá mo ghaolta Ar thaobh an bhóthair, fuair said bás Sna páirceanna ‘s na sceacha Luíonn a gcnámha ocrach taobh le taobh Ar an long seo trasnaím an t-aigéan Ag seóltóireacht thar an cúr feargach Go dtí tír de mo amárach I bhfad ó mo theaghlach We'd like to thank Tomás for his translation and reading, which was moving, poigniant and well delivered, in the gardens of St Luke's Chirch, beside the Liverpool Irish Famine Memorial stones.