Monday, 20 July: Bus to Dublin and Visit to Strokestown Park/National Famine Museum

Today, we’ll be leaving Galway and heading back to Dublin.  At mid-day, we’ll stop at Strokestown Park and the National Famine Museum.  Strokestown House is an example of one of the Ascendancy “big houses”, and has been reconstructed to its 18th century appearance.  The National Famine Museum tells the story of the great potato famine of the 1840s, with a focus on the impacts to the west of Ireland.  We’ll have plenty of time to explore the house, formal gardens, and museum.  On the bus, Professor Cope will lead a seminar discussion of historical documents from the famine period (here) and we’ll also discuss the mysterious death of Major Denis Mahon, owner of the Strokestown estate during the famine.

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One Reply to “Monday, 20 July: Bus to Dublin and Visit to Strokestown Park/National Famine Museum”

  1. Going to the National Famine Museum today was definitely the most informative experience I’ve had so far in Ireland. I thought that the examples of the propaganda sent to the English public during the Famine itself were particularly interesting. The posters seemed like a parallel visual representation of Trevelyan’s cruelly cold interpretation of the crisis. I would love to know if the English public who could have most closely related to the Irish during this period, such as the working poor, had any real idea of what was occurring or if they simply swallowed the ideas of the English aristocracy due to such propaganda pieces.

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