Friends from around Stuttgart in South Germany joined Afri’s Famine Walk in 2018 and 2019 in county Mayo in the West of Ireland and due to the pandemic, they joined the walk online in 2020 and 2021. At the end of the 2021 online event, Joe Murray, the coordinator of Afri, suggested that people should organize their own “famine walk” wherever they live.
This idea burned and some of us decided that we would do so! Of course, it must be on a Saturday and yes, there should be a trip with a bus and no, it must not be 18 km because everybody should be able to join. Music and speeches should be on the way. Afri promised to support with Buttons, CDs, Certificates and suggestions regarding what we might include in the walk. And last but not least there was a reminder about sponsorship!
On Saturday 3rd July 2021, 13 people gathered to do the 1st Famine Walk outside Ireland.
A wonderful walk followed. Our former schoolmaster met us on three stops along the route. After listening to a German harp and an Irish Tin whistle, we discussed hunger and emigration in Ireland and Germany; we shared memories from our walks and times in Ireland and found deeper concern for the past and its consequences for our future. Topics were not all new but were felt intensely. There was a sense of solidarity among us and sunny weather helped us on the long 15 km walk.
In the evening we met in a Pub and enjoyed the same good and relaxed feeling we experienced in the pub in Louisburgh. No, no, no: We didn‘t forget the sponsorship: an envelope was passed around and returned with € 300. Later another €200 was given by a friend who had done the Walk in Ireland. Yes, it is more than expected but only a little in the context of Afris valuable work.
Gerd Hofheinz
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