News & Events
Sharing Lands: The legacy of the Choctaw gift in Ireland
This event is free and all are welcome
The Sharing Lands project is deeply rooted in the Choctaw concept of ima – the powerful tradition of giving. The project is inspired by the remarkable story of the $172 sent by members of the Choctaw tribe to the starving in Ireland during the Great Famine in 1847. The donation came soon after the Choctaw’s forced relocation from their homelands in the 1830s, which caused immense suffering. At the same time, Ireland faced its own hardships from colonial expansion. Ironically, some Irish migrants and Irish American settlers, including President Andrew Jackson, later contributed to expansionist U.S. policies that had a terrible and lasting impact on American Indians
Join us on at 1.15 on 5th June at Nano Nagle Place in Cork city for a moving and unifying experience with LeAnne Howe (enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation), Padraig Kirwan, Gillian O’Brien, and Shelley Angelie Saggar, as they discuss their project, 'Sharing Lands'. We are delighted to be taking the project to Cork as the city and county have a close connection with the Choctaw Irish story. The ‘Kindred Spirits’ sculpture which commemorates the Choctaw donation is in Midleton while UCC hosts two Choctaw scholars annually.
Part of our project is about storytelling – a tradition cherished in both Choctaw and Irish cultures. We would love to hear your stories based around the Choctaw gift, or your experience with friendship, generosity, belonging or kindness – characteristics that are rooted in both cultures. At a time of upheaval, upset and division we would love to hear positive stories that span cultures, geography and time. No story is too small to be shared. Let’s come together to celebrate shared humanity through the power of storytelling!
Join us at 1:15pm if you wish to hear the Sharing Lands team talk about their experiences to date, and anytime between 2:30pm and 4:30pm if you wish to share a story with us..
Famine Summer School
Join me & the rest of the Sharing Lands team at 2025 Famine Summer School which is being held at the National Famine Museum, Strokestown, co. Roscommon between 30th May and 1 June 2025.
The theme of the 2025 Famine Summer School is “Humanitarianism and Hunger”.
From Indigenous and settler communities in North America to India and the Sultanate of Ottoman Empire, as well as Great Britain and in Ireland, private individuals and groups across class divides raised funds and risked their lives in a humanitarian response to Ireland’s Great Hunger (1845-1852) that often contrasted with official responses. The 2025 Famine Summer School explores the comparisons and contrasts between the historical context and the challenges of humanitarian responses to the Great Hunger and famines in the world.
Tickets and further information can be found here: Famine Summer School
The Darkness Echoing
Join me in Manhattan for some dark tales from Irish history to mark the time around Samhain or Halloween! I’ll be talking at the beautiful Irish American Historical Society on Monday 21st of October. I’ll be discussing why the Irish are obsessed with misery and death, why my grandmother did a trial run of her wake, and why museum gift shops are always full of surprises!
Click on the button below to get further details.
The Darkness Echoing
This talk will take the audience on a tour of some of Ireland’s most fascinatingly dark tourist sites. Alongside some tales of ghosts, wakes and accidental imprisonment the talk will challenge some old tropes about Irish history and question what we really know about our own past and what impact that has on our present and future.
Honouring Indigenous Aid and Sharing Lands
Honouring Indigenous Aid & Sharing Lands pays tribute to the Indigenous Peoples such as the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee First Nations in Canada West (Ontario) and Choctaw and Cherokee Nations in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) that contributed to Irish Famine relief in 1847 when they faced considerable hardship, broken treaty relations, and forced relocation.
Tn.
An evening with Prof Gillian O'Brien
We are delighted to welcome Professor Gillian O'Brien to Waterstone, Liverpool One. She joins us to discuss her enlightening new book, The Darkness Echoing: Exploring Ireland's Places of Famine, Death and Rebellion. The evening will be in conversation with screenwriter, Jan McVerry.
The Irish Times Top 10 Bestseller!
From war to revolution, famine to emigration, The Darkness Echoing travels around Ireland bringing its dark past to life.
It's no secret that the Irish are obsessed with misery, suffering and death. And no wonder, for there is darkness everywhere you look: in cemeteries and castles, monuments and museums, stories and songs.
In The Darkness Echoing, Gillian O'Brien tours Ireland's most deliciously dark heritage sites, delving into the stories behind them and asking what they reveal about the Irish.
Energetic, illuminating and surprisingly funny, The Darkness Echoing challenges old, accepted narratives about Ireland, and asks intriguing questions about Ireland's past, present and future.
'My history book of the year' Ryan Tubridy
'As thought-provoking as it is informative and entertaining' Irish Times
'Hugely enjoyable, thought-provoking and informative ... An essential read' History Ireland
Gillian O'Brien is Professor of Public History at Liverpool John Moores University. Her most recent book 'The Darkness Echoing' takes readers on a journey back in time and across the country as she visits battle sites, famine ships, graveyards and gift shops in search of Ireland's dark history. Prof O'Brien is also the author of 'Blood Runs Green: The Murder that Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago' and is a regular commentator on Irish history in newspapers and on the radio and television in Ireland and Britain.
After getting her first break on Brookside, Jan McVerry found her spiritual home in Weatherfield, picking up two BAFTAs and the Tony Warren Award for her contributions to Coronation Street. Though dramas such as The Forsyte Saga, Clocking Off and The Street she’s traded secrets with soldiers, midwives and prostitutes, and spanned periods from Victorian London to modern-day Manchester. She may not have a History O Level to her name but she shares Professor O’Brien’s obsession with misery, suffering and death.
Ships, Sugar & Slavery: Catholics, Provisioning & Eighteenth-Century Cork
CPMH Hybrid Seminar
Online & John Foster Building, LMJU
Gillian O’Brien, Professor of Public History, LJMU will be presenting on ‘“Ships, Sugar & Slavery”, Catholics, Provisioning and Eighteenth-Century Cork"’.
Cork's wealth in the eighteenth century was largely dependent on the sea, not so much on what could be fished from it, but what could be traversed across it. Cork merchants specialised in trading salt-beef, butter and pork. The provisions were primarily destined to be consumed on ships taking enslaved people from Africa to the West Indies or on Plantations in the West Indies. Using a range of sources from newspapers, personal papers, convent archives and memoirs this paper examines the extent to which the Catholics of Cork consciously or unconsciously aided, abetted and benefitted from slavery.
How to register
The seminar is free and if you’d like to attend, in person or online, please email Hanna Nsugbe: h.o.nsugbe@2022.ljmu.ac.uk.
In your email please state CPMH seminar 18/10/23 and in-person or online.
Venue: Online and at John Foster Building,Liverpool John Moores University, Mount Pleasant, L3 5UZ
Dublin Festival of History
Dublin Festival of History talk about ‘The Darkness Echoing’, Sunday 26 September, 7.00-8.30pm https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-darkness-echoing-gillian-obrien-in-conversation-tickets-166303774065