May 2023

The 2023 Famine Walk will take place on Saturday 20th, May in Louisburgh.

This year the theme is: “Famine is a Lie and War is a Crime”

The registration will take place from 11.00 am 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 at 12.40 pm.

The walk is approximately 18 km long.

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

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

Walk leaders will be Senator Frances Black, Michael Doorly, Joseph Kabwe Kamfwa, and music by Karan Casey.

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 that 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 reason, the inspection was not made, and 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 and reflections. It ends with ceol agus craic in a local pub.