Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Great Irish Famine Online ( ) was officially launched on the 12^thMay as part of this year's National Famine Commemoration which was hosted by University College Cork (UCC). It is a major collaborative project between my Department and UCC and publishes online for the first time the 1841 and 1851 famine census database, allowing people to view and analyse detailed information charting changes in the social, political and economic landscape of pre and post famine Ireland.

This website enables users to view the information for any location across the island. It encompasses more than three thousand Civil Parishes and over sixteen hundred towns. Using this census data, it is now possible to analyse the information which was recorded for each Civil Parish on the island of Ireland.

The resulting maps depict the impacts of the Famine in terms of population decline, social transformation and other key themes during this time. These maps and statistics are complemented with text and images, intended to give a complete and visually appealing picture.

The Department of Education and Skills also intend to include this application as a resource on Scoilnet, the official information portal for schools and teachers. An App version of this website is currently under development is expected to made available shortly.