Search Results for 'Population'

Although it was not listed as an item for discussion on the agenda of the Ballina MD meeting on Wednesday last, Cllr Jarlath Munnelly advised management that talk of 200 male refugees being placed in an industrial unit in Moyvalley Retail Park in the town, would be raised by councillors in the course of proceedings.

In the summer of 1831, famine returned to County Mayo, and the starving took to the roads in search of food. Travellers on the roads witnessed and recorded many desperate people in the fields feeding on mustard, cress, and other herbage. Convoys of horses and carts carrying food also plied the roads, and it was not long before the starving turned their attention to them. The carts had meal and flour imported through Westport, destined for markets, big houses, and famine relief depots. The authorities responded by assigning armed escorts, but hunger had disarmed people of their fear of armed soldiers and constables.

Safe Home Ireland, the Emigrant support service in Ireland, whose patron is President Michael D Higgins, recently announced details of a Fundraising Walk, The Long Road Home – Ag Siúl le Chéile.

The acclaimed new contemporary folk musical ‘In the Midst of Plenty’ will tour to the Town Hall Theatre on June 7 and 8 as part of Roscommon-based Enchanted Croí Theatre’s Irish tour. The work of a women-led creative team, the piece amplifies the seldom-told stories of impoverished women and the choices they made as they fought to survive 19th-century cottier life.

Dr Audrey Kinahan, pharmacist from University Pharmacy, and Aoife NI Eochaidh, physiotherapist from International Pelvic Physiotherapy Management, are running a seminar for mums-to-be and new mums. The seminar will be held in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill, on Tuesday, May 16 from 7pm to 9pm. Audrey and Aoife will be giving their top tips for pregnancy and post-natal health.

Harsh winter weather leads to severe famine.

by mary O’Connor

In May, 1846, as part of a Famine relief project, 175 people were employed to build a road linking Dangan to Salthill. Part of that road was known as Bóthar na Mine (the Road of the Indian Meal) because all of the wages were used to buy oatmeal. I have never been able to find out how, when, or why this name was translated into English as Threadneedle Road.

The Great Famine of 1845 - 49 hit Achill Island particularly hard. Given the poor quality of its soil there was little or no alternative to the potato crop which failed throughout those years. Once the severity of the calamity became apparent, and that help from the government was begrudging and insufficient, there was a sensible coming together of Protestant and Catholic clergy to try to calm and feed the people.

The distressing scenes recently of children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border, the European response to the migrant crisis, and questions about Ireland's Direct Provision system, have raised serious questions around racism, borders, and political responses.