Historical Adventurers: Dunbrody Famine Ship and JFK Homestead

This is a post which Elizabeth and Meghann wrote for our academic blog about our trip to Wexford to see the Dunbrody Famine Ship and the JFK Homestead. This blog contains the adventures of Brad, Meghann, Elizabeth, and Eva.

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So many people during the "Great Hunger" sailed across the sea to the Americas and Canada that this globe has a burning flame within it to show how the Emigrants have created a "flame" around the world.

In 1847 the potato crop failed entirely. This year was known as black '47. Blight struck the potato plants and when they were dug up from the ground the potatoes crumbled like black ash. For the Irish living in distant rural areas, this was a tragedy. For generations, all the people had ever eaten for all meals of the day was potatoes. They didn't even know about other types of food. Potatoes were all they could grow, so for the poor in the rural areas that was all they had to eat.

For those living in the towns, life tended to be slightly better, and they did not starve because other foods still grew which they could eat.

But as the famine continued for the next several years, the people grew emaciated. When the English decided to do something about it, they imported Native American grain. But it was too little too late, and the Irish didn't know what to do with the grain if they could get it. Soup kitchens were opened in the towns, but they did not help most of the people who needed it most. Those who desperately needed it lived out in the country and were too weak from starvation and disease to make the long, long journey into town for a little soup, which was just flavored water and not very nutritious.

A few centuries before the famine when the English came and pushed the indigenous Irish to the far corners of Ireland, being Catholic was outlawed. This continued through the time of the famine. If you were Catholic, you were not allowed to own land, so your entire family, grandparents through grandchildren and the generations beyond, had to live in a tiny house on small plots of land that was rented. It was common for Catholic families to have over ten children, but most of them never lived to see adulthood. But the Irish had been faithful Catholics for over a thousand years, and they were not going to change because of these difficulties. Rather, they clung to their faith that God would see them through these troubles. Food was offered to them as a bribe to forsake their Catholic faith, and most would not risk their or their children's eternal destination for a bowl of soup.

Since the people were still dying, the English government told the landlords to "give assistance" to their tenants. However, it was easier and cheaper for most of the landlords to get rid of the dying Irish and use the land for grazing livestock. Many got the cheapest ticket they could find and offered it to the Irish. It was a ticket for a ship sailing to the new world, and it was the only way for them to survive so many of them were forced to take it.

These ships were just glorified cargo ships. The living quarters for these Irish passengers were atrocious. The inside of the ship showed what the living quarters for the people traveling on the ships would have looked like.

First class beds

One family would have to fit on one of these bunk beds. But there were often over ten people in one bed. They also had to store any of their belongings with them on the bed, so they kept their food, pots and anything else with them.

For food, each family was brought up onto the deck of the ship where they had to bake bread over a fire until it was rock hard because it needed to last them until the next time they had a chance to make more. To eat it, they took rainwater, dipped the bread in, to moisten it, crumbled it into a ball and fed it to themselves or their children while the sailors ate fresh fish or salted meat.

This bed is a representation of the White family's living quarters. These are just two of the children. "Mrs. White" came to talk to us holding her newborn baby. (Women sometimes had to give birth in these dreadful conditions. Needless to say, they rarely survived.) She said that her husband was sick. (The ship was disease ridden with typhoid fever and various other diseases.) Three of her children had died over the winter. By being on the lower bunks, you were subject to the vomit and diarrhea from the sick people above you. The "mattresses" were only a pile of straw so that any liquid would drip down.

This paper represents the names and number of people occupying the bunk.

If you had no family, you had to sleep with complete strangers.

Unfortunately, the conditions were so bad, and the voyage so long, many people died on these ships, which is why they became known as "Coffin" ships. But those who made it to the new world did very well. They worked hard, educated their children and made a much better life for themselves. John. F. Kennedy's ancestors came to America on the Dunbrody ship, and just a few generations later, he became the president.

The bell from the original ship.

JFK Memorial.

After visiting the authentic replica of what the famine ships would have looked like, we went to visit the JFK Homestead. John was not the only influential Kennedy, in fact, most of the family became a great influential power. To understand John’s ambition, we have to look at those who inspired it. The first Kennedy to start it all was John ‘Honey’ Kennedy, John’s grandfather. Honey was said to be one of the sweetest men anyone had met, thus his nickname "honey." He started a bank and took care of problems in city hall those before him had ignored. He wanted what was best for the people, doing whatever he could to help the people. His daughter described him as the greatest man she had ever known, wherever he was, there was magic in the air. His son would soon follow in his footsteps; he paved the way for the Kennedy’s to come and have an influence in Boston society.

Joe wanted to become a successful businessman, but he was an Irish Catholic who was separated from the old Boston families. Rather than deterring him, it made him try even harder to prove his worth and aspire to become equal with the higher up businessmen. By the age of twenty-five, he was the president of the bank his father had founded, the youngest in America. His wealth continued to grow, and later he became the chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission when the stock market crashed. In 1918 he became the American Ambassador to Britain where he met the Mayor’s daughter Rose and made her his wife.

John F Kennedy was one of Joe and Rose’s nine kids. His grandfather and father had already paved the way for John, his family had become well known and was highly liked. John takes after his father. He had the same ambition and desire to change the world. John F. Kennedy never did anything small. It was go big or go home for him. He handled the Cuban Missile Crisis with ease, one of the most dangerous events in world history. He started the space program that would one day put a man on the moon just as he predicted. John was a wonderful President. We could go on and on about his achievements. It is a tragedy that his campaign came to such an abrupt end. Who knows what else he would have accomplished to help further better the world.

John F Kennedy's family came over to America on the Dunbrody Famine ship, and his cousins still live on a dairy farm near New Ross Co. Wexford. When John F Kennedy found this out, he went to visit them, and the site as since become a tourist attraction.

The stables

The Cow House

What is left of the old house.

The inside of the stables has been arranged to look like the inside of the house where John F Kennedy would have visited his family. People cannot go into the real house, obviously, because his family still lives there.