Press release
Minister Foley announces the development of resource of resources to support teaching on the Great Irish Famine
Published on
Last updated on
Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Education Norma Foley today announced the development of a new resource for schools, primary and post-primary which provides access to curriculum linked resources and guidance to support teaching of the Great Irish Famine.
The resource is an interactive website, linked to Scoilnet, which aims to encourage learners to engage with existing online materials relating to the Irish famine and diaspora and to empower young people from primary and post-primary schools to interact with the events of the Great Irish Famine in the same way that historians would.
Minister Foley said:
“As we approach the National Famine Commemoration Day we reflect on the impact the Irish Famine has had, and still has, on us as a nation. Through the lens of learning about the famine, we see what it means to be Irish internationally, we learn about the impact of the diaspora and we can also empathise and better understand what is happening globally in terms of the movement of peoples and the impact of climate change on the supply of food.
“This resource will be an invaluable support to teachers in their teaching of the famine, and will enable learners to investigate their own areas of interest using trusted and appropriate resources. I would like to thank Dan Campion and the History team in JCT for undertaking this project and for creating this fantastic resource.”
The Department of Education commissioned the development of the resources through the education support services. This was undertaken as part of the department’s involvement with the National Famine Commemoration Group, chaired by Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin.
The aim of this online resource is to support teaching and learning around the causes, course and consequences, nationally and internationally, of the Great Famine and examine the significance of the Irish diaspora.
The resource will feature a variety of resources available from a wide range of sources such as Strokestown National Famine Museum, RTÉ, Scoilnet, EPIC and the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine.
To commemorate the events of the Great Irish Famine, this online resource will contain the following:
The website will be accompanied by a live webinar, with an expert panel discussion on how the events of the Great Famine can be explored. Further information with links to the website and the webinar will be emailed directly to schools at the start of the next school year.
The development of the resources was commissioned by the Department of Education to support the learning on the Great Irish Famine. They are being produced by the Junior Cycle for Teachers history team, a Department of Education support service. The team is led by Daniel Campion.
The Schools Online Great Famine Resource will assemble a collection of multimedia sources to support student learning about this dark period in Irish history.
It will have a range of activities which will stimulate student thinking about the cause, course and consequences of the time from a variety of perspectives.
It will contain links to repositories of sources which are applicable to students from Primary school to Senior Cycle history students.
It will host a collection of resources that highlight the impact of the Great Famine on every county.
It will include prompts and guidance on how to carry out and how to present research findings on any aspect of the Great Famine.
The National Famine Commemoration Committee was first established in 2008 following a government decision to commemorate the Great Irish Famine with an annual national famine memorial day.
The Committee is chaired by Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
It is made up of representatives from the Department of Education, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Defence, representatives from the Defence Forces, Department of the Taoiseach, Irish Aid, representatives from Trócaire and Gorta, historians, the OPW, the National Museum of Ireland and other interested parties.
The annual national commemoration revolves between the four provinces of Ireland. An international event also takes place annually to commemorate the Great Irish Famine.
The main objective of the National Famine Commemoration Committee is to consider the most appropriate arrangements for an annual national commemoration of the Great Famine. The committee is now in its third term of office and the members of the committee will serve for a period of two years, at which point the terms of reference and membership of the committee may be reviewed.
The committee’s work programme for the current term comprises of four key strands: