Visitors admire a sculpture of children’s shoes at the Basilica of St John’s the Baptist in St John’s, Newfoundland upon their arrival on an Irish research ship, Irish Explorer, on May 9, 2024. They are a part of the Global Irish Famine Way project which tracked and commemorates the exodus of the Irish during the famine of the mid 1800s.
The bronze shoes cast from a pair of children’s shoes found in Ireland and believed to have belong to a child who fled the Irish Famine in 1847.
You can visit this project website at https://nationalfamineway.ie/
The Global Irish Famine Way, a global extension of the National Famine Way Ireland. A 165km trail in Ireland that traces the 1490 tenet from Strokestown, Roscommon to Dublin in 1847 to board the famine ships…also know as coffin ships
As much as Newfoundland is known for its large Irish descendent population the majority of Irish immigration to Newfoundland ended before the great Irish famine that marked the Irish diaspora around the world. Newfoundland did, however, take in two ship loads of immigrants with approximately 1200 people just a year after a great fire destroy most of the City of St John’s.
The Global Irish Famine Way extends the National Famine Way to follow the journeys of all the Irish Famine emigrants around the world, including the UK, Canada, the United States, South Africa, and Australia. The Bronze Shoes and access to information that mark the National Famine Way will also mark each significant location where Irish immigrants settled.
The Voyage of the Bronze Shoes to St John’s launch of the Global Irish Famine Way.
These photos were a part of a project with the Embassy of Ireland in Ottawa, Canada.
….Greg Locke
