Memorial Day

The American Ireland Fund   |   Chicago

Cordially invites you to answer Ireland's call to commemorate The Great Famine

The Irish Government has declared Sunday May 17th, 2009, National Famine Memorial Day.

Official ceremonies will be held at Skibereen, Co. Cork and on Grosse Ile, Canada.

Irish communities worldwide are encouraged to hold local events to commemorate the day.

In Chicago the Galway Committee of the Sister Cities International Program, The American Ireland Fund and Old St. Patrick's Parish in cooperation with the Consul General of Ireland will mark the day.

Wreath Laying & Reception
A wreath will be laid at the Grainne statue in Heritage Green Park, Adams & DesPlaines St., followed by a reception in the cafeteria of Old St. Patrick's School, 120 South Des Plaines.

Song & Story
There will be a short presentation in song and story by singer Catherine O'Connell and Mary Pat Kelly, author of Galway Bay* a historical novel based on the life of Kelly's great-great grandmother Honora Kelly who survived the Great Starvation and escaped with her young children to Chicago and settled in Bridgeport. Her grandson was Ed Kelly, Mayor of Chicago from 1933 to 1947. Honora’s great-grandson Father Steve O'Donnell was the legendary former pastor of Old St. Patrick's.

"I asked Mary Pat and Catherine to do this presentation after I read the book. The story in the book recalls the central event behind the Irish Diaspora-The Great Famine. There is a direct line between the stories imagined on those pages and what we do at The American Ireland Fund. While one million died in the famine, as Honora Kelly says in the book, two million escaped, one reaching back for the next, rescuing each other. The American Ireland Fund continues to reach across the sea to give back to our ancestral land in this same spirit."
~ Roseann Finnegan LeFevour, Regional Director of The American Ireland Fund

*Copies of Galway Bay will be available to be signed by the author.

The mission of The American Ireland Fund is to be the largest worldwide network of people of Irish ancestry and friends of Ireland dedicated to raising funds to support programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community devopment throughout the island of Ireland.