Jeanie Johnston celebration sunk by €8,000 bill

The warm reception given to the Jeanie Johnston famine ship when it sailed into Montreal last week turned unexpectedly cool when the ship’s owners were given a €8,000 bill for port fees.

At least 8,000 people in Canada toured the Jeanie Johnston vessel – a pine-and-oak replica of a Canadian-built boat that ferried 2,500 people from Co Kerry to North America between 1848 and 1855 during the potato famine.