More than 100 tired and weary walkers carrying Palestinian flags made their way along the north side of the Dublin quays shortly after 7pm on Saturday, as the final rays of the August evening sunshine reflected off the Liffey.
The group, led by the Boyle Palestine Solidarity Group, were completing the final leg of an eight-day, 165km walk along the National Famine Way, which began at Strokestown Park House on August 2nd. The cross-country pilgrim walk, which is punctuated by 30 bronze children’s shoes, follows the route 1,490 people took in 1847 after being evicted from their homes in Co Roscommon.
What began as a group of 50 at 10am on Saturday, doubled in size on its final leg, as members walked the 27km on Saturday from Maynooth to the famine memorial on Custom House Quay in Dublin city Docklands.
A hush fell over participants as they took their final steps past the Jeanie Johnston replica famine ship and passed the Sean O’Casey bridge before gathering around the haunting bronze sculptures of Irish famine emigrants.
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The walk from Boyle to Dublin was in memory of “our own famine dead, the million dead and million who emigrated” but also “the people of Palestine who are suffering the same forced starvation and forced displacement”, said Mary Gallagher, one of the organisers.
“We still have those memories, we carry it in our genes, the effects of the famine,” Ms Gallagher told The Irish Times. “We want the Irish people to look at our own famine and realise that forced displacement, and starvation of our own people, and then look at Gaza today and see that it’s that, and much worse. Genocide, ethnic cleansing and now starvation as a weapon of war to add to all of this.
“We wanted to do something to connect the Irish people with Palestine.”
Liam McNulty (83) from Castlerea in Co Roscommon, the oldest member of the group to walk the full 165km over eight days, agreed it was important for Irish people to relate the war in Gaza “back to our own history ... Irish history was a series of invasions, colonisation, expropriation and settlement. And what’s happening now in Gaza is no different. I think that’s why the majority of Irish people empathise with the Palestinians. Because they see the parallels between our history.”
He added: “I don’t agree with violent protests, but peaceful protests like this give us some hope of getting politicians to act, either through our own national parliament or through international bodies.”
The Boyle walkers were met at Custom House Quay on Saturday evening with a small group of wellwishers, including about two dozen people holding a crocheted blanket, featuring 2,300 red, white, green and black yarn and wool squares, crafted across Ireland and internationally.
Niamh Bonner from Mullingar, who describes herself as the “custodian of the blanket”, said it was the crochet project has become a way for those unable to march or walk to show their solidarity with the people of Gaza. “We wrote to libraries and craft groups around Ireland, asking them to send us squares. Some people sat down and learned to crochet so they could make a square. We also got squares from Venezuela, Canada, Greece, Germany, England, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We now have 2,300 squares, each one representing 10 children who have been murdered in Gaza.”
The National Famine War for Palestine weeklong walk from Co Roscommon to Dublin’s quays was also held to raise funds for four charities providing humanitarian aid in Palestine.
