IRISH FAMINE BENEFACTORS AT IRISH SOCIETY MEETING

When Ireland was in the throes of its nation-altering famine in the middle of the nineteenth century, many unexpected benefactors came forward to aid the starving people of Ireland.  The kindness of these benefactors will be the subject of the guest speaker at the March 12 meeting of the Irish Cultural Society.  The meeting convenes at 7:30 p.m. in the Garden City Library, 60 Seventh Street, across the street from the Garden City Hotel.  The meeting is free and open to the public.

The Society’s guest speaker is Professor Christine Kinealy.  She will present the findings from her research on those who helped the Irish during the Great Hunger.  Professor Kinealy has published her research discoveries in her book Charity and the Great Hunger: The Kindness of Strangers.  People from around the world and from many ethnic and religious groups, from Quakers to Native Americans, recognizing the magnitude of the calamity in Ireland, gave generously to hunger relief in Ireland.  Professor Kinealy will introduce her audience to the kind strangers who have a claim on Irish history.  The book was reviewed on the front page of the Irish Echo by editor Ray O’Hanlon. 

Christine Kinealy is the author of fourteen books on the Great Hunger, including The Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845–52.   Professor Kinealy is professor of Irish Studies at Quinnipiac University and director of the University’s newly created Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute.  With its Great Hunger Institute and the presence of Christine Kinealy, the goal of Quinnipiac is to make the University the preeminent authority on the Great Hunger.  The University used Dr. Kinealy’s picture in its full page ad in Irish America magazine to promote the Institute as “a scholarly resource for the study of The Great Hunger.”

The Irish Cultural Society is pleased to bring an eminent Irish Famine scholar to Long Island.  Christine Kinealy’s scholarship, her animation as a speaker, and her self-effacing humor will make this a memorable meeting.