Local arts group honours Famine in new book

TRACEY Heaphy is a mother of five whose husband is out of work

TRACEY Heaphy is a mother of five whose husband is out of work. She lives in an unemployment blackspot in Cork - Knocknaheeny - and this is what she wrote about the Famine.

It came slowly. Moved into the earth and darkened it. Touched the roots and sickened the crop. We held it in our hands. Stared at it and wept. That was the beginning.

Last night, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Mr Joe O'Callaghan, launched Famine Cry, a book of poetry and prose written by seven members of the Knocknaheeny Community Arts Development Group, Voices from the Tower, to commemorate the Famine.

"Over the past six months, a group of seven women and four men have been working together under the guidance of professionals towards their own celebration of a very poignant part of our culture", Ms Maura O'Keeffe, a spokeswoman, said. "Living in an area of extreme unemployment and constant emigration, the group was very conscious of the modern relevance of the commemoration, but rather than concentrate on the negative, the group wants to remember it with a step forward.

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The launch took place in St Finbarr's Hospital, originally one of the Famine workhouses in Cork, where reports of hauntings are still widespread.

However, last evening, with soup and potatoes as the main offering enthusiastic fans of the new publication gathered in a more convivial atmosphere. "With Famine Cry, Voices from the Tower hope to move forward their current development process whilst honouring the lives of past generations who have forged our history at home and abroad", Ms Heaphy said.

According to Ms Mary Johnson, co ordinator of Voices from the Tower, Famine Cry is a collection of personal, imaginary responses to one of the greatest tragedies ever to befall the country. "In the written and visual work presented in this collection, each individual writer, with a minimum of researched information, sets out to create the impression of a record of the daily happenings in the journey of victims of the famine.

"At that time in Ireland, 1845-1849, the most likely victims were those whose livelihood depended entirely on the potato crop. They would probably have been tenants in alien land holding settlements, and with the failure of the potato crop within the complex dependency system in Ireland then, their means of subsistence was taken from them."

Many hundreds of people were turned away from the workhouses, many never reached the ships, and many more died on the roads, Ms Johnson said.

The proceeds of the sale of the new book will go towards the promotion of other art initiatives within the Knocknaheeny community group.