Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support all that has been stated by my colleague, Deputy Smyth. I pay tribute to Deputy Brophy in bringing forward this Bill. I am glad the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is present for this debate. She chairs the National Famine Commemoration Committee, which was set up in 2008. It has special significance for me as I come from the town of Strokestown in County Roscommon where the National Famine Museum is located. One of Deputy Humphreys first acts as Minister was to visit the town. Unfortunately, I was missing on that occasion, even though she sent me an invitation. The town has many attributes. We dispute the fact that O'Connell Street is the widest street in the country. Our town has one that is at least as wide. I know the Minister has a fantastic day in the town.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Jim Callery and his family. Mr. Callery bought Strokestown Park House, which was the estate of the Pakenham Mahon family. There was a huge cost involved in its purchase but the museum is now attracting 60,000 visitors a year to the town. I urge everybody in this Chamber not only to visit the museum at some stage but to encourage their families to do so. Many people tend to forget what happened during the period of Great Famine when 2 million of our people emigrated and 1 million people were lost, but how many more people were lost as they tried to emigrate?

One of the big projects in Strokestown Park House is the "missing 1,490". A total of 1,490 people left the locality and many were lost en route. Some have been traced now in America and in Canada. It is an extraordinary story. It involves the number of people who did not reach their destination and the number of people who reached it and did well for themselves in the United States. The is a huge story still to be told there. The Irish Heritage Trust is in charge of Strokestown Park House for the next eight or ten years.

The national event commemorating the Famine was held in Strokestown in 2014. It is a spectacular and extraordinary event. Nobody can explain how wonderful the occasion is. Given that one of the biggest problems in the world today is hunger and people dying from it, there is a huge opportunity to establish a university in Ireland specifically dealing with the issue of world hunger. The International Famine Conference is held in Strokestown each year from the end of May to early June. It attracts both important figures from across the world and students from across the world who want to learn more about the Great Irish Famine.

Many Irish people do not look back on the Famine and in many respects, it is a forgotten part of our history. When one visits the National Famine Museum in Strokestown and one reads through the stories, which are all there, it is an extraordinary experience. It is very touching. Many schoolchildren visit it. I would encourage not only primary schools but second level schools to bring their students to the museum and learn about this great story.

I very much welcome what the Minister has done here this evening. As Deputy Smyth noted, Members on this side of the House fully support her. We can put this commemoration day in its proper place each year but we should never forget what happened to many of the generations gone by, what they suffered and went through and the heartbreak that was brought to many families. It is only right and proper that we would honour those people, think of what happened and think of the great loss of life. No occasion should be missed in terms of talking about this issue, giving it its proper place in Irish history and developing an analysis of world hunger and why it happens even today. Although there seems to be so much wealth in many parts of the world, many people still die of hunger. As was mentioned by some Members opposite, there is now another famine in South Sudan. Why is that happening again in the world? I am sure many of us will want to talk about that in the weeks and months ahead and will want to support those people. I am glad, along with my party colleagues, to be able to support the Bill.

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