Rocks from Mayo, accounted for in the chaos following 9/11, lie at the core of a Famine memorial in New York, just a stone’s throw from Ground Zero, says Bette Browne.

President Michael D Higgins arrives in New York later today for his first official trip to the US.

Plans are being made for an all-island memorial to honour the victims of the Great Famine.

Politicians, schoolchildren, religious and community groups will come together today for a major ceremony to mark the United Nations Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

TOMORROW (June 29), a British Navy warship, HMS Ocean, is due to arrive in Dublin on what is termed a ‘courtesy visit’.

Victims of the Famine have been remembered at a ceremony in Dublin.

An international minute’s silence will be held today to remember the one million victims of the Famine.

BEFORE Denis Reen took over the Jeanie Johnston project the whole thing was virtually dead in the water.