For the first time the Irish Great Hunger commemoration will be held in Northern Ireland.
The annual event, commemorating the Irish Great Hunger, the 19th century potato famine that devastated Ireland, will be held in Newry, County Down. The Great Hunger saw one million people die from starvation and disease between 1846 and 1851. Another 1.5 million were forced to emigrate.
The Irish government has officially launched the program for the Newry commemorations this September 26, the Newry Times reports.
The main ceremony will take place at the Albert Basin, in Newry town, close to the Quays shopping center.
Very proud to have the launch of Annual Famine Commemoration held here at Newry and Mourne Museum�� pic.twitter.com/SshpxatxHT— Newry&Mourne Museum (@NandMMuseum) July 27, 2015
The program will include a series of lectures and musical events at the Ulster American Folk Park near Omagh, County Tyrone. Also Warrenpoint Harbour, in County Down, from where thousands of emigrants left Ireland to escape the famine, will also be used as a memorial venue.
The annual famine commemoration was established in 2008, but this is the first to be held north of the border. In recognition of the fact that the Great Hunger affected the whole of Ireland the location of the national commemoration is rotated annually across the four provinces of Ireland.