Arizona to host Int'l Famine Commemoration 2019

Josepha Madigan T.D., Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Chair of the National Famine Commemoration Committee, has announced that the 2019 International Commemoration of the Great Irish Famine will take place in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday 3 November.

The Famine Memorial at the Irish Cultural
Center, Phoenix, Arizona

Confirming the arrangements for this year’s international Commemoration Minister Madigan commented: "As Chair of the National Famine Commemoration Committee, I look forward to the International Famine Commemoration being held in Phoenix, Arizona. This is the fifth time the commemoration has been held in the USA, and Phoenix is the westernmost venue to date. Previously the International Famine Commemoration has been held in New York, Boston, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

"I am particularly pleased that the Commemoration is being held in Phoenix this year as 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the Great Hunger Memorial commissioned by the Irish Cultural Center.

This year’s commemoration represents an opportunity to not only recognise the work of the Irish Cultural Center and McClelland Library in Phoenix but to honour the memory of those who left Ireland during the Famine itself, the subsequent years of emigration which saw many Famine Irish and their descendants make an enormous contribution in the Western states, and the ongoing role of the Irish diaspora and Irish-Americans in Arizona and throughout the Western United States.”

There have been ten international commemorations of the Great Irish Famine to date. Since the first international commemoration in Toronto and Quebec in 2009, events have also been held in Australia, Canada and the UK.