Doolough Famine Walk 2025

Afri

Join us on Saturday, May 17th, 2025, in Louisburgh, Co. Mayo, for our annual Afri Doolough Famine Walk, a poignant journey of remembrance, solidarity, and commitment to action. This year’s theme, Sowing Seeds of Change in Remembrance and Solidarity, calls on us to honour the lives needlessly lost during An Gorta Mór—the Great Hunger—by confronting the enduring injustices of our time in solidarity with communities affected today.

View the brochure and sponsorship card here

Register on Eventbrite here

History of the Famine Walk
Since 1988, our annual ‘Famine’ Walk has shed light on the parallels between the preventable tragedy of An Gorta Mór in Ireland and modern-day injustices worldwide, calling for action to address grave human rights violations globally. While those in dire need of food and relief died in the haunting beauty of the Doolough Valley in 1849, vast quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England —a fate that occurred all over the island during the ‘Famine’ years, 1845 -1852. These predictable, preventable, and human-made catastrophes occurred and continue, not by nature’s hand, but as a consequence of deliberate policies rooted in greed, dispossession, and domination. These stories of suffering, hunger and starvation are not relics of the past, but a living reality woven into the fabric of our world today, owing to colonialism, war and systemic injustice. This Ceremony and Walk serve not only as an invaluable means of remembrance but also as a continuing renewal of commitment to leaving a different legacy, in fierce determination to imagine and strive for a world rooted in justice, dignity, and equity.

Event Highlights & Structure

11:00 AM – Registration in Louisburgh Town Hall

Walkers will gather in Louisburgh Parish Hall from 11 am for registration. All walkers, even those who are pre-registered, must go to the registration desk to check in and collect their ticket to board the shuttle bus (included in ticket price).

12:00 PM – Opening Ceremony
We will gather at Louisburgh Parish Hall for the Opening Ceremony, featuring conversation, live music and thought-provoking reflections on An Gorta Mór and its parallels today from renowned speakers.

Speaker and Performer Highlights
Clare O’Grady Walshe – Seed Keeper, Author, and Expert in Seed Sovereignty and Globalisation

Paul Laverty – Award-winning Screenwriter, Lawyer, Humanitarian and Storyteller.

Eman Mohammed – Senior Ted Fellow and Award-winning Palestinian Photojournalist

Farah Elle – Libyan-Irish Progressive Musician Whose Distinctive Voice Reveals Something of the Beauty in the Ephemeral Every Day.

12:50 PM – Shuttle Buses to Walk Starting Point

Walkers will be shuttled to the walk’s starting point, where a short tree-planting ceremony will take place before the walk begins. The bus takes approximately 20 minutes. Toilet facilities will be available at the starting point. Please note that no parking is available at the starting point, so walkers must take the shuttle bus.

1:30 PM – Doolough Famine Walk
Following a short tree-planting ceremony at the starting point, we will embark on the Doolough Famine Walk. This 17-km journey retraces the steps of those who journeyed or died in the Doolough Tragedy in 1849, honouring each one as a human with a name, hopes, dreams, and fears. On return to the Louisburgh Parish Hall, each walker will receive a Certificate of Completion.

Why Walk With Us?
As we walk in memory of all who died, whether by starvation or disease, not forgetting those displaced, we stand in solidarity with those all over the world for whom the experience of deprivation, destruction and death is a current reality. This event compels us to see how history is repeating itself, particularly in Palestine, where starvation is being weaponised as a tool of genocide, and urges each of us to heed the call of shared struggle for more just futures as ancestors to be. Your participation also supports Afri’s vital work in education, campaigning, and solidarity. By walking, we defy indifference to injustice and commit to building a future where no one is abandoned to hunger or violence.

Book Your Place Today!
Spaces are limited. Secure your ticket now and join a community of remembrance and resolve. Please note that if the cost is a barrier for you at this time, you can reach out to admin@afri.ie confidentially.

Next Steps:
For more information about Places to Stay and Eat in Louisburgh, please go to https://www.louisburgh.ie/

A Facebook group has been set up to support participants travelling to and from the Famine Walk. If you need a lift or can offer one, we encourage you to get in touch with other participants through this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/149422418104070/

Please don’t hesitate to contact admin@afri.ie if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you at this unmissable event!

Afri gratefully acknowledges the support of Irish Aid and Trócaire.

Afri’s Hedge School 2024 at TU Dublin Blanchardstown

Afri

On Wednesday, November 13th, 2024, we held our 12th annual Hedge School in partnership with TU Dublin in Blanchardstown. Our Hedge School harks back to the informal gatherings in Ireland that provided education at a time when strict laws suppressed schooling. This history serves as a reminder of how dominating powers can restrict, withhold, or distort knowledge. Today, our annual Hedge School holds space for humans’ innate need to share, learn, and take action for a just, equitable, and sustainable world.

This powerful student-led event delved into the justice issues of Palestine, housing, and gender equality, framed within the very apt theme of the Hedge School ‘Human Rights for Humanity’. The video below beautifully captures the workshops, speakers, discussion, stalls, music, art, and, of course, tree planting. Together, we explored pathways of solidarity, centred on Fannie Lou Hamer’s words: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

Statement by the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine on Gaza and Israel

Afri

The Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine (IAAC-P) is a coalition of 23 Irish civil society organisations representing a collective membership of over one million people across the island.

We mourn, without reservation, the taking of all civilian life, in Gaza, in Israel and across the occupied Palestinian territory; and we condemn all unlawful acts which deliberately target or recklessly endanger civilians, including all acts of collective punishment against a population under siege. Continue reading “Statement by the Irish Anti-Apartheid Campaign for Palestine on Gaza and Israel” →

Film about Famine Walk 2018

Afri

2018 marked 30 years of the Doolough Famine Walk and was attended by around 300 people. The weather was good and the day was memorable with inspirational words from Richard Moore and Fatin al Tamimi and stunning songs and music from Lisa Lambe and Nigel Linden.  Here is a short film which captures how the walk went.

Date for the diary: Famine Walk 2018

Afri

Remembering and Solidarity

Saturday 19th May, Doolough Co. Mayo

Registration from 12.45pm in Louisburgh Town hall

Beginning at 1.30pm

Walk Leaders: Richard Moore, Fatin al Tamimi

Music: Lisa Lambe

Famine Walk 1988-2018

Register online here (alternatively you can raise sponsorship for Afri – just bring this to the registration desk on the day) and see who’s going on Facebook

Download the brochure or the sponsorship form

Saturday 19th May 2018 will see the 30th anniversary of the Doolough Famine Walk. Afri first organised the walk in 1988 to commemorate the Great Hunger of 1845-50. Regions such as Mayo illustrated how a natural setback such as potato blight can mutate to disaster in the context of unchecked market forces, lack of democratic structures and resources, and a pitiless, moralistic ideology. While some £9.5 million was eventually spent on late and poorly-designed ‘Relief’, £14 million went to sustain the military and police forces.

Our walk retraces a journey of horror which occurred on 30th/31st March 1849. Two poor-law commissioners were to assess people in Louisburgh, entitling them as ‘paupers’ to meagre relief rations. The inspection never happened, but the people were instructed to appear at Delphi Lodge at 7 the following morning. They walked the hilly road in wintry, even snowy, conditions. At Delphi Lodge they were refused food, or admission to the workhouse, and so began their weary return journey, on which many, even hundreds, died.

Afri, drawing on the local history of Louisburgh and Doolough, recalls the dead and displaced of the Great Hunger – and all those facing the same grotesque and avoidable cruelties in today’s world, from the so-called ‘War on Terror’ to the indignities of ‘Direct Provision’. We walk the famine road to remember the causes of hunger and poverty in our world – political, military, economic and environmental – and our failure to learn the lessons of our own history. Our Walk Leaders eloquently represent the spirit of resistance and transformation:  

In the twentieth-anniversary year of the Good Friday Agreement we welcome Richard Moore, who was blinded as a 10-year-old child by a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He reacted by founding Children in Crossfire, declaring: “I learned to see life in a different way. I may have lost my sight, but I have my vision”.

2018 is also significant in that it marks the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, and in this context, we are honoured to welcome Fatin Al Tamimi, Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The extraordinary voice of Lisa Lambe will provide the music for this year’s walk. We are delighted to have Lisa as part of this year’s walk line up.

Register online here (alternatively you can raise sponsorship to help Afri continue our work – just bring this to the registration desk on the day) and see who’s going on Facebook

Read an article about the Famine Walk and BBC Radio 4 Ramblings Show.

Find out about our ‘Music From A Dark Lake’ CD, a compilation of songs from past Famine Walks.

 

Reflections from the Food Sovereignty Assembly and Famine Walk

Afri
The 2016 Famine Walk began at Delphi Lodge, led by walk leaders Cathryn O'Reilly and Clare O'Grady Walshe (the other walk leader not present here is Rafeef Ziadah) among others. Photo by Derek Speirs
The 2016 Famine Walk began at Delphi Lodge, led by walk leaders Cathryn O’Reilly and Clare O’Grady Walshe (the other walk leader not present here is Rafeef Ziadah) among others. Photo by Derek Speirs

Around thirty people gathered for Afri’s 3rd annual food sovereignty assembly, which took place in the town hall in Westport on the 20th May this year to examine food sovereignty issues and to explore what practical steps are necessary to implement the ideas of the Food sovereignty Proclamation which was agreed and posted in 2015.  Among the questions discussed at this year’s event were: how can we accelerate the transition to a low carbon, fair and resilient society?; how can we produce both food and energy in ways that reduce greenhouse gases and their negative impact on the planet? Among the many suggestions was to continue to have April 24th – the actual date of the 1916 Rising – as a food sovereignty day in future years as it was this year.

Rafeef Ziadah speaking during the Afri Famine Walk in Mayo. Photo by Derek Speirs
Rafeef Ziadah speaking during the Afri Famine Walk in Mayo. Photo by Derek Speirs

Continue reading “Reflections from the Food Sovereignty Assembly and Famine Walk” →

Ireland SolidariTree

Afri

On the eve of the Afri Famine Walk, Palestinian poet and activist, Rafeef Ziadah, planted an olive tree and an ash tree, sacred trees of Palestine and Ireland, with Lord Mayor of Dublin Críona Ní Dhálaigh in attendance. The olive and the ash, together called the SolidariTree, symbolises the bond of support between the people of Ireland and of Palestine. The event was organised by Palfest Ireland.

Film by RoJ