National Famine Museum


The National Famine Museum is located at Strokestown Park, County Roscommon, Ireland. The museum contains records from the time of Ireland's Great Famine of 1845–1852.
WWW Official Site

Background

The exhibits aim to explain the famine, which was triggered by the failure of successive potato harvests, and to draw parallels with the occurrence of famine in the world today.
The historic relevance of Strokestown is twofold. At the time of the famine, its owner was Major Denis Mahon, the first landlord to be killed in relation to the Great Famine of Ireland. Secondly, meticulous records were kept at the estate documenting the famine and emigration. The museum houses these in the Strokestown Famine Archive.
The Strokestown Park House and its estate were bought by the Westward Group in 1979. Subsequently, the museum was established by the Westward Group and all the documents on display in the museum are from the estate. In 2015, the Irish Heritage Trust took responsibility for the property with the help of private philanthropic support from individual directors of the Westward Group. The group redeveloped the museum, with it reopening in 2022.
The Irish National Famine Museum is twinned with the Grosse Isle and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site in Quebec, Canada. It is not affiliated with the similarly-named National Famine Memorial at Murrisk, County Mayo or with Ireland's Great Hunger Museum in the US.