Afri Famine Walk: Solidarity with our famine past and present

With summer almost upon us, it’s a great time to get out and about. This weekend sees the annual Afri famine walk take place in Co. Mayo, an experience that is always uplifting and memorable, writes Rob Fairmichael.

Organised walks can be pedestrian, if you take ‘pedestrian’ in the sense of routine, everyday, nothing out of the ordinary, even if everyone is getting a bit of exercise.

However the annual Afri Famine Walk in the most spectacular part of Co. Mayo is different. Taking place annually for the past twenty seven years, it is always a deeply symbolic and extra-ordinary event that has included walk leaders such as Desmond Tutu, Arun Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma), Christy Moore, John Pilger, as well as human rights activists from places such as Guatemala and the Choctaw nation. This year's leaders will include Sharon Staples, aunt of the imprisoned whistle-blower Chelsea Manning.