May 2022

After two years online (due to Covid) the Famine Walk returns to Mayo.

It will take place on Saturday 21st May 2022 in Louisburgh.

This year the theme is: “Tackling global warming and global warring, breaking the cycle of hunger and displacement”.

The registration will take place at 12.00 noon in the Parish Hall. There will be time for conversation, talks and music before being ferried by bus to the start of the walk.

Shuttle buses will bring walkers to the starting point at Delphi from 1pm.

Walkers should walk on the left-hand side and along the way near the lake tea and coffee are available. Toilets are located at halfway.

Shuttle cars will bring back walkers to Louisburgh if they need.

The event is organised by Action From Ireland.

The First Famine Walk was organised in 1988 as a reminder of the ‘Doolough Tragedy’, one of the blackest events in Irish history occurred on 31st March 1849 during the Great Famine.

The walk retraces the journey many starving people were forced to make through the Doolough Valley to attend an inspection and get famine relief. For some reasons the inspection was not made and the hundreds of people were told to appear at Delphi Lodge.

They walked the eleven miles way in cold and wintry conditions, but, when they got to Delphi Lodge, they were refused either food or tickets of admission to the workhouse. On the journey back home more than 400 people died.

The walk is one of solidarity and remembrance and includes music, reflections and finished with ceol agus craic in a local pub.