The Global Legacy of the Great Famine in Ireland
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Healing the Wounds of An Gorta Mór & Exploring What it Means to be Irish
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Our lab explored the legacy of the Great Famine (1845-52), in which more than 1 million Irish died. More than 1 million emigrated during this time, and there were successive waves of emigration that created an Irish diaspora that today numbers more than 44 million. The lab is not so much about the history but about people’s experience of that history. What did the Irish have to do to survive the Famine? How does the Famine echo into our lives in the present? How is the legacy of the famine different for those who left and those who remained?
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The lab was intended for people of Irish descent, whether in Ireland or in the Irish diaspora. Some understanding of trauma was necessary, as was the willingness to look deeply into our individual lives and our ancestry. But most important is the desire to uncover and heal what our Irish ancestors couldn't heal in their own time.
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The lab followed Thomas Hübl's Collective Trauma Integration Process (CTIP). We created a safe container for exploring how the Famine trauma response still lives in us and how it affects our very being. Painful moments arose in this work but the process was guided with compassion, care, and respect. And with a deeper understanding of the legacy of the Famine, we began individually and collectively to form a new sense of Irishness.We started out with a group of 54 participants, drawn from 98 applications. Five people withdrew at various times during the lab, so we ended with 49 participants. Perhaps four or five others also withdrew but without notice, just by discontinuing their participation. We met for 13 group sessions from January - December 2024.