Historian to lead Famine 1848 Walk

This year’s seventeenth annual Famine 1848 Walk in Ballingarry takes place on Saturday, 29 July, and will be led by the historian Dr Thomas McGrath, who is from Ballingarry.

The Walk commemorates all those who suffered and died during the Great Famine and the 1848 Rising which took place in Ballingarry in the middle of the Famine.

The Walk is always held on the last Saturday of July and this year it falls on the 175th anniversary of the Rising to the exact date and day.

The Walk begins at 3pm at the Young Ireland 1848 and National Flag monument in the village of The Commons and proceeds to Famine Warhouse 1848, the scene of the Rising, now an OPW national heritage museum and visitor attraction.
The Walk follows the route of the Rising and takes less than hour to reach the house.

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One million Irish people died of starvation and disease during the Great Famine and another million fled the country.
In the later Famine years evictions also took a heavy toll. In 1848 the Young Irelanders sought to achieve Irish freedom and to protest against the Famine. They were inspired by successful revolutions that year across Europe.

Under the leadership of William Smith O’Brien, MP, who tried to stage a bloodless revolution, they were defeated in Ballingarry when confronted by the forces of the British state.

The Rising resulted in a state trial for high treason, held in Clonmel, and death sentences by hanging, drawing and quartering for O’Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence Bellew MacManus and Patrick O’Donohoe.

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These sentences were later commuted to penal transportation to Van Diemen’s Land, today known as Tasmania.
Visitors to Ballingarry will enjoy the scenic location, a preserved mid-nineteenth century farmhouse and courtyard, part of Irish history and a national site of memory. There is a historical exhibition within the house.
Light refreshments will be served from the tea room. All are welcome.

This year’s Walk Leader, Dr McGrath, is a well-known historian who was brought up at The Park, Ballingarry, within site of Warhouse Hill. He has been a driving force behind 1848 commemorative activities in Ballingarry since the 1980s. At the start of the Walk in The Commons, and in his Walk Leader’s speech at the house, he will explain what happened in 1848.

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He will also launch Prof William Nolan’s new two-volume work on the Young Irelanders, entitled ‘Remember ’48.’ Prof Nolan is also a local, a native of Ballinastick, Coalbrook.

Dr McGrath inaugurated an annual climb of Slievenamon, last year, celebrating the mountain’s history and heritage.