Event type: Talk

Liverpool’s inaugural Great Famine Voices Roadshow goes digital. Join online presentations and a live Q&A focused on Ireland’s Great Famine.

Below are the details of the Great Famine Voices Roadshow run in May 2020, but we also think you may be interested in a related film that the Festival commissioned in Oct 2020, premiered at that year’s Festival, which you can see here:

Now, back to The Roadshow…

Before the break out of Coronavirus/Covid-19, the Irish National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park and the Irish Heritage Trust planned to bring The Great Famine Voices Roadshow to Liverpool. It would have been a UK exclusive. However, moving with the times, we are now bringing together Irish migrants, their descendants and multi-generational Irish communities virtually. The event has been adapted to a curated online presentation series and discussion concerning Ireland’s Great Famine and the migration it created. This will be open to the public via social media.
How do I engage?
Access to each presentation is given below. They are also being issued as part of alive feed on the Institute of Irish Studies’ Twitter account. They are completely free to access. The presentations will run in the following order (please note that all timings are approximate):

1.00pm – Introductions, including welcome by Professor Peter Shirlow (Director, The Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool)
1.15pm – ‘Irish fever’: famine and the Liverpool-Irish by Professor John Belchem (Emeritus Professor of History, University of Liverpool)
1.35pm – Great Famine Voices connections: Impressions, expressions and connectedness by Emma Smith (Director; Liverpool Irish Festival) Part 1. Full screening of the documentary Liverpool Family Ties: The Irish Connection (30mins). Part 2.
2.25pm – Commemorating the Great Hunger in Liverpool by Greg Quiery (Author, historian and chairperson of the Liverpool Great Hunger Commemoration Committee)
2.45pm – The Famine Irish in Liverpool from the Strokestown Park Estate by Greg Quiery, Roger Appleton (Brightmoon Media), and John O’Driscoll (Curator, National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park)
3.05pm – Liverpool: a famine frontier by Professor Christine Kinealy (Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University) and Rebecca Abbott (retired Professor of Communications at Quinnipiac University, Emmy-award winning filmmaker)
3.25pm – Q&A session
4.00pm – Ends ///

The full run down of the day is presented here.
What is the Great Famine Voices Roadshow?
Ordinarily, The Great Famine Voices Roadshow brings together Irish migrants, their descendants and multi-generational Irish communities. It asks visitors to share family memories and the stories of migration that the Great Hunger caused. It also welcomes stories arising from the struggles and opportunities that followed. The Roadshow archive strengthens a sense of ancestry and provides access to historic and current Irish connections. Stories will be recorded, stored and displayed on The Great Famine Voices online archive at greatfaminevoices.ie.

We are now working collectively on how we can move this physical event to a digital one and ensure we can collect as many of yor stories as possible.

Online or in person, who is The Roadshow for?
The Roadshow is for

anyone with family memories or stories of migration from Ireland to share
Irish migrants and multi-generational Irish people living in Liverpool
Irish dual-heritage individuals living in the city (particularly those from the African, Asian, Arab, European, Irish Traveller, Roma, Sinti and other diverse communities). Please help us share this invite with these communities
those aiming to learn more about migration from Ireland to Liverpool.

Share the event

Our custom URL for this event is: https://cutt.ly/GFVRLiverpool Please share this in your networks. If tweeting or chatting about the event on social media, include us by using this hashtag: #GFVRLiverpool

Over to you. Send us your story
Please send a video clip of yourself sharing your family memories and stories about your ancestors or your own experiences of migrating from Ireland to Liverpool and other destinations in England. Your video should be no longer than fifteen minutes. Please send it by 1 May 2020 to faminestudies@irishheritagetrust.ie. There are a couple of key tips for doing this:

First and foremost, think of the migration story you want to tell
Run a quick test to make sure your speech can be heard
Film in landscape and at the highest resolution your equipment allows
Start by addressing the camera with your full name and current location
Focus on telling the Famine or migration story in full, lasting no longer than 15 minutes
Once recorded, please send* your MP4 film to faminestudies@irishheritagetrust.ie. We recommend using WeTransfer where possible, as it allows you to send large files for free.

Please note: Assuming your film fulfils our criteria and honours all common sense decency screening, sending your film to us will serve as consent for it to be used by the project partners for the Great Famine Voices Roadshow. It will be used on the associated website and may be referenced by the partners in future presentations and work. We will not share any email data with third parties, but film may be used on multiple platforms.

Who is running the Roadshow? The Irish National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park and Irish Heritage Trust are delivering The Great Famine Voices Roadshow in partnership with the Institute of Irish Studies at University of Liverpool, Liverpool Irish Festival and the Liverpool Great Hunger Commemoration Committee. The Roadshow is funded by the Government of Ireland’s Emigrant Support Programme.

Please note, event is limited to
2 May 2020 only, not 1-2 May as in early listings.

Click for the Great Famine Voices website.

 

 
Objectives of the Great Famine Voices Roadshow in Liverpool
The Great Famine Voices Roadshow will collect accounts from families and individuals whose ancestors have experienced migration from Ireland, with particular reference to the period of the Irish Famine/Great Hunger. This evidence gathering process is of value because

it adds valuable material to the existing record of the experiences of people directly impacted by the Famine. This is all the more important because the voice of this group remains under-represented in the record
it gives people the opportunity to express and recount the details of their ancestor’s migration experience. In many families, the migration from Ireland is the single most significant episode in their family history. Participation in The Great Famine Voices Roadshow acknowledges and validates this experience and its associated challenges
by entering additional material in the record, The Great Famine Voices Roadshow may well turn up fresh information and perspectives related to our understanding of the Famine migration experience, including the factors behind migration, and the challenges of integration in host communities. This evidence might also invite comparisons between the integration process in different communities
it serves as a commemoration of events and acknowledges their significance
the perspectives of migrants and migrant communities are essential to reaching a deeper understanding of communities and societies as we find them today, casting fresh light on the history, distinct characteristics and culture of present-day communities
it provides an accessible and valuable educational tool for those examining their own community and its history, and for young people in particular
it allows the collaborating partners to build their relationship by developing a meaningful event with a long lasting legacy.

Featured image: Close up of an archive document, held at Strokestown Park.

Original event: 2 May 2020.