The 2018 Irish Famine Summer School will take place from 20th – 24th June 2018. The theme is Irish Journeys: Famine Legacies and Reconnecting Communities. Booking is now available so please book your place now!
The programme is just being finalised and promises to be a really engaging exploration of the Great Famine and its impact on later movements for social and political change.
The Irish Famine Summer School is a joint initiative between the Irish National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park House, Roscommon County Council and the Strokestown Community Development Association. Previous years conferences have included lectures, workshops, drama and music relating to the Great Irish Famine, while afternoon excursions took in many of the historic sites of county Roscommon. In addition, four leading Famine experts took part in a History Ireland Hedge School. The theme of the 2017 conference was Children and the Great Hunger in Ireland.
Since 2011 Strokestown Park House in county Roscommon has staged an annual International Famine Conference. This conference allows delegates to engage with some of the world’s leading experts on the Great Famine, while also providing the unique opportunity of visiting the Irish National Famine Museum, established at Strokestown in 1994. The Inaugural Irish Famine Summer School provided the platform to continue to educate and raise awareness about the causes and consequences of Ireland’s greatest social catastrophe. Previous conference themes include The cost of Hunger (2011); New perspectives on the Famine (2012) and the The Famine Irish- emigration and new lives (2013). In May 2014 Strokestown hosted the National Famine Commemoration Week, which included lectures, exhibitions, music and drama.