The Famine Pot

international | history and heritage | news report Saturday August 03, 2013 17:29 by Mattie Lennon - CIE WRITERS GROUP info at mattielennon dot com

A Donegal man's discovery

John Cassidy goes global

THE FAMINE POT
By Mattie Lennon

Donegal man John Cassidy is embarking on a unique project.

The following is the story behind it;

In 2011 John found an old famine-pot, broken in pieces, in south Donegal. He had it welded, restored and mounted outside Leghowney Community Hall.

Such was the interest shown by American tourists that he decided to do some research on the whole Famine-pot/Soup–kitchen aspect of the famine and found that because of bigotry, pride, misguided patriotism and inherited false information,this aspect of the potato failure was almost air-brushed from our history.

In conjunction with An Lar TV he is now making a short documentary on the subject. Three prominent historians, Dr. Ciaran Reilly,

Fr. Anthony J. Gaughan and a Quaker historian, have agreed to speak on camera and John is hoping to interview a number of centenarians who knew famine survivors.

It will be broadcast on An Lar TV which is reaching the Irish Diaspora in more than 120 countries around the world including such Irish groups and clubs as: Ireland Calls Radio Show, New York, USA/Irish Defence Forces Veterans. Turkey/Paris Gaels GAA Club, Paris, France/London Irish Association (Hammersmith and Wimbledon), The Irish Canada Monument Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Irish Sports and Social Club, Vancouver, Canada. The Irish Association of Toronto, Canada. The Tara Association, New Jersey, USA. Little Shamrocks.com, New Hampshire, USA (www.littleshamrocks.com)The Irish Association, Christchurch, New Zealand Cedar Valley Irish Cultural Association, Iowa, USA. The Ulster American Society, Pennsylvania, USA. The Irish community of Gridley, California, USA. The Irish community of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The Irish Association of South Africa. The Irish Club, Basel, Switzerland. The Irish Club, Brussels, Belgium. The Costa Gaels GAA Club, Marbella, Spain. The Irish Club, Marbella, Spain. Gaelic Athletic Association Toronto Canada. The Uruguay Ireland Association, Montevideo, Uruguay. The Tolosa Gaels GAA Club, Toulouse, France. The Irish Community of Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland GAA, Auckland, New Zealand. The O'Neill Malcom Branch, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann, Washington D.C., St. John's Avalon Harps GAA Club, Newfoundland, Canada.Tasmanian Gaelic Football Association, Hobart, Australia. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Iowa.

It will also be advertised on the website; www.irishfaminepots.com which will be live in the next couple of days.

The target market is Ireland and abroad, mainly the USA. And John is hoping to get the documentary into schools in Ireland and abroad.

John may be contacted at;

irishfaminepots@gmail.com