A minute's silence is due to be held across the country later this week to remember those who died in the Great Famine.

The Government today called for the catastrophic events of the Great Famine to be properly remembered as a series of engagements got under way in Canada to mark the disaster.

Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren will stand in silence next month at a poignant tribute to those who died during the Famine, it was announced today.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has announced a series of measures to revitalise the Irish-American relationship just as Ireland returns to headlines in the US for all the wrong reasons.

Skibbereen in Co Cork is to be the focal point of Ireland's first National Famine Memorial Day this May.