Complementing our work on the annual Liverpool Irish Famine Memorial, last year’s Walk of the Bronze Shoes has created a new annual opportunity.
For those who don’t know, in 2024 members of our Festival team walked a pair of bronze shoes from County Roscommon (northwest Ireland) to Dublin (east coast of Ireland); sailed them to Holyhead and took them from Seacombe to Mersey Ports, to walk them to Clarence Dock Gates and on to the Famine Memorial. Why?
The bronze shoes are a marker of the National Famine Way in Ireland and Liverpool’s pair — teamed with 15-pairs in North America — are the first to form the Global Irish Famine Way.
Clarence Dock is where 1.8+m Irish Famine poor came into Liverpool. The Great Hunger commemoration memorial (unveiled in 1998) at St Luke’s Bombed Out Church remembers the 300k+ that stayed in Liverpool, the 1m+ that sailed overseas and the 2m+ that died. The journey between the two locations is indicative of the struggles of those sent here.
We’ll repeat the Clarence Dock to St Luke’s Bombed Out Church walk annually, until we find the bronze shoes a permanent home and we welcome you to join us.
This time our group will be led by a time-travelling Liver Bird, a bird cyborg who has travelled through time experiencing displacement due to conflict, famine, economic hardship and climate change. Stewards will help people walk the route. Information will be provided at the site that morning. A small informal ceremony will start the vigil, with walkers from the Walk of the Bronze Shoes,
This activity has been made possible with funds from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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