President honours Famine victims

Remembering the victims of the Great Famine should encourage Irish people to intervene wherever there is injustice and hunger around the world, President Michael D Higgins has said.

At the national Famine commemoration in Kilrush, Co Clare, he honoured and grieved for our ancestors who died.

The president warned that commemorating the Great Hunger should not be a form of self-absorption in victimhood, or an inward-looking exercise in nostalgia.

“Rather, at its best, contemplation of our Famine should encourage us to intervene in the contemporary world everywhere that we find injustice, poverty and hunger.”

Mr Higgins said 1m died and 2m emigrated in search of survival and a better life during the Famine, from 1845 to the early 1850s, and for decades after.

Mr Higgins said that in Munster, Co Clare was the most severely affected.

“Kilrush shares the unhappy distinction of being one of the three areas worst hit by death, disease and evictions,” he said. “In fact, it is est-imated that Kilrush lost 50% of its population between 1846 and 1851.”

The President told dignitaries, including Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan and ambassadors, that many Irish people died believing their lives were of no value.

“By our presence here today, we honour their lives, we remember their suffering and we grieve for them all,” he added.

On Friday, schoolchildren across Ireland held a minute’s silence to remember those who died in the Famine, with sporting organisations holding one yesterday.