About the Project
The Digital Irish Famine Archive was first developed by Dr. Jason King at the University of Limerick in 2012. In 2015, he expanded it in partnership with the Moore Institute at the National University of Ireland, Galway; the Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University; the Irish National Famine Museum; the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation; the Ireland Park Foundation; the iNua Partnership; and the Irish Research Council.
The purpose of the Digital Irish Famine Archive is to make accessible eyewitness accounts of the Irish famine migration to Canada in 1847-1848 that would otherwise be unknown. It also pays tribute to those who cared for Irish famine emigrants.
The archive contains the digitized, transcribed, and translated French language annals of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, or Sisters of Charity, who first tended to Irish famine emigrants, especially widows and orphans, in the city's fever sheds in 1847 and 1848. It also includes annals from the Sisters of Providence and correspondence from Father Patrick Dowd, who worked alongside the Grey Nuns in the fever sheds, as well as testimonies from Irish famine orphans, like Patrick and Thomas Quinn, who were adopted by French-Canadian families.
Contact
Dr. Jason King can be contacted at jason.king@nuigalway.ie or jkingk@yahoo.com
License
Preferred Citation Format
The preferred citation format for the digital archive is given below; you should replace <date accessed>, with the date you accessed the archive.
King, J. (2015): Irish Famine Archive, http://faminearchive.nuigalway.ie, <date accessed>
Other resources linked to from the archive may have their own citation information that should be used where appropriate.
Technical Development
Design and development of the digital resource was done by David Kelly, Research Technologist for the Humanities and Social Sciences at NUI Galway.
