International Famine Commemoration 2019
Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan T.D., welcomes the Great Famine Voices Roadshow to the International Famine Commemoration 2019. The event was held at the An Gorta Mór Great Hunger Memorial on the site of the Irish Cultural Centre and McClelland Library in Phoenix, Arizona, on 3 November. Minister O’Donovan represented the Government of Ireland and spoke on behalf of the Chair of the National Famine Commemoration Committee, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan.
Minister Patrick O’Donovan Address at International Famine Commemoration.
An Gorta Mór Great Hunger Memorial, Phoenix (1999)
Robert O’Driscoll, Consul General of Ireland — Western United States, welcomes the Great Famine Voices Roadshow to the International Famine Commemoration held at the An Gorta Mór Great Hunger Memorial, Irish Cultural Centre and McClelland Library, in Phoenix, Arizona. He travelled from the Consulate General of Ireland — San Francisco, which is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Consul General of Ireland — Western United States Robert O’Driscoll’s Address at the International Famine Commemoration 2019.
Phoenix International Famine Commemoration group photo, with CG Robert O’Driscoll, ICLF Board President, Leslie Thompson, and Minister Patrick O’Donovan seated middle first row.
John Healy, Head of Corporate Governance & Services. An Roinn Cultúir, Oidhreachta agus Gaeltachta, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Mike Legge of Southwest Tours at the Grand Canyon on the Famine Irish in the San Patricio Brigade during Mexican-American War (1846-1848).
The Irish Cultural Center and McClelland Library
Chas. T. Moore, Jr. Executive Director of the Irish Cultural Center/McClelland Library and Irish Cultural and Learning Foundation. Chas reflects on his search for his ancestral home of William Moore who emigrated from eastern County Offaly in the Bog of Allen during the Famine period.
A Tour of the Irish Cultural Center and McLelland Library in Phoenix, Arizona, led by Leslie Thompson, Irish Cultural & Learning Foundation President of the Board of Trustees.
Caroline Woodiel (McLelland Library Manager/Librarian) welcomes the Great Famine Voices Roadshow to the Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix.
Caroline Woodiel (McClelland Library Manager/Librarian) shares some of the treasures of the Rare Book Room and Archive in the McClelland Library.
Dr Jason King and Minister Patrick O’Donovan
An Gorta Mor monument with crowd and McClelland Library in background at International Famine Commemoration.
Delbert Tso is a Navajo Native-American and long standing volunteer with his wife at the Irish Cultural Center and McClelland Library. He reflects on his own upbringing and points of connection with the International Famine Commemoration in Phoenix. Delbert also considers the cross-cultural significance of Famine memory and the suffering of the Navajo people. He translates a Navajo prayer that he offered at the commemoration into English.
Therese Beckman is a descendant of Thomas Maher who fled from Famine Ireland to New York in 1846, and then traveled west and homesteaded in Iowa in the 1850s. She reflects on conflicts between her Irish ancestors and Native Americans such as the Sioux who were displaced by them. She also recalls her upbringing in the southwest and mixed Mexican-Irish heritage, and the cultural significance of Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead.
Mary Moriarty grew up in New York with Irish emigrant parents before moving to Arizona. She recalls family memories of souperism, fear of the County Home and its associations with the Work House, and the “famine mentality” of her parents generation. She also reflects on the Irish in Arizona and establishment of the Irish Cultural Center and McClelland Library in Phoenix.
Janice Ryan Bryson is the author of Irish Arizona (2009). She recalls her great grandmother Anna Mary Maloney from Limerick and her great grandfather William Bryson who arrived in the Arizona Territory in 1882. She also reflects on the legacy of the Irish San Patricio Brigade in the Mexican American War (1846-1848) and historical and current immigration to the United States.
Arizona State historian Marshall Trimble reflects on his Famine Irish and Scots Irish ancestry, the Irish in Arizona, the Famine emigrant Ellen “Nellie” Cashman (1844-1925), and the legacy of the Great Hunger.
Great Famine Voices Roadshow Phoenix Gallery
Ciara Archer is a first generation Irish-American and daughter of Leo Archer from Dublin. She is closely involved with the Irish community and Irish Cultural Center. Ciara reflects on the Arizona Irish and Great Hunger’s legacy and Famine migration for her generation.
Leo Archer is an Irish emigrant from Dublin to the United States who left in 1985 and settled in the Phoenix area. He is Ciara Archer’s father. Leo reflects on his education about the Famine and Famine memory in 1980s Dublin and the Great Hunger’s legacy of migration that shaped the Irish experience in Arizona.
Kayla Gray is the 2019 Arizona Rose. She discovered her Irish ancestry through DNA testing in 2014 and she embraced Irish culture ever since.
Maureen Henry is descended from Irish emigrant grandparents Francis Joseph Gleeson and Mary O’Connor. She grew up in Denver and now lives in Phoenix where she volunteers at the Irish Cultural Center.
Frank Leavy and his late wife Eileen emigrated from a family of meat cutters to Iowa from County Meath in 1954. He established a successful meat cutting business there and now lives in Phoenix. Frank and Eileen have written a book together entitled From Humble Beginnings. Frank sings “The Galway Shawl”.
Joseph McLaughlin is descended from Marcus McLaughlin who emigrated from Buncrana, County Donegal, to Philadelphia in the 1850s. He reflects on the history of the Irish and legacy of the Great Hunger and Famine migration in the south-western United States.
Leslie Thompson, Irish Cultural & Learning Foundation President of the Board of Trustees, shares her story of migrating from Dublin to Phoenix in 1995.
Patrick Uniacke is an Irish emigrant who has been living in San Francisco since 1984. He is on the San Francisco Famine Irish Memorial Committee and he reflects on the location of the city’s future Famine monument.