Pupils from Gaelscoil na gCeithre Máistrí and Glebe NS came together in Donegal Town to continue the tradition of the Famine Walk / Siúlóid Chuimhneacháin an Drochshaoil. Click on the arrows to see photos of the event: Gaelscoil Principal Eoghan Ó Gráda told those gathered that the annual walk was a school tradition started by former Principal, Máistir Seosamh Mac Suibhne who was also present. He explained that the event was held to remember the generosity of the people of the Choctaw Nation who gathered and gifted $170 for the people of Ireland during the 1845 to 1848 famine in Ireland. “A lán airgid a bhí ann sin ag an am agus chuaigh sé go mór chun leasa mhuintir na hÉireann a bhí ag fáil bháis den ocras!,” he said. As well as commemorating the kindness of the Choctaw people, the event was a fundraiser for Medecins Sans Frontieres, an organisation which provides medical care in warzones and other such challenging situations. Mayor Anna Gallagher spoke of the famine as one of the darkest chapters in Irish history. “The pain of that era still lingers in our collective memory, etched into the soul of this nation,” she said. “But even in the midst of that sorrow, something extraordinary happened. A light reached us from across the Atlantic - from the Choctaw Nation, a people who had themselves suffered deeply after being forced to walk the Trail of Tears, losing so many along the way. “And yet, despite their grief and hardship, the Choctaw people reached out to help us. They heard of Ireland's suffering, and in 1847, they gathered and sent a donation - $170 at the time, worth thousands today - to help Irish famine relief. “They did not know us. They had never met us. But they gave, because they understood what it meant to suffer. And more importantly, what it means to care. “That act of kindness is more than a footnote in history. It is a beacon, a reminder that compassion can cross oceans, that the bonds of humanity are stronger than any boundary of geography or
In Pictures: Donegal Town schools pay forward the Choctaw Nation’s generosity
‘Despite their grief and hardship, the Choctaw people reached out to help us. They heard of Ireland's suffering, and in 1847, they gathered and sent a donation - $170 at the time’
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