A minute’s silence will be observed at venues throughout the country over the weekend in rememberance of those who died during the Great Famine.
Schools across Ireland will fall silent later today in the first of a series of events leading up to Sunday’s annual memorial day for those who perished during the Great Hunger.
Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren are expected to take part in the minute's silence which takes place at noon in memory of the 1.5 million who perished or emigrated from Ireland and those who continue to suffer from famine.
All public and sporting events have also been asked to observe a minute’s silence on Sunday, now dedicated as National Famine Memorial Day.
The National Famine Memorial Day was announced by the Government earlier this year after a long campaign for recognition by lobby groups such as the Dublin-based Committee For The Commemoration Of Irish Famine Victims.
On Sunday a ceremony is taking place in O’Donovan Rossa Park in Skibbereen, Co Cork, one of the areas worst affected by the catastrophic failure of the potato crop in the 1840s.
The event will culminate in a State flag and wreath-laying at Abbeystrewery Cemetery where 8,000 to 10,000 Famine victims are buried in a mass grave.
Last week, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív represented the Government at the unveiling of a plaque at Grosse Ile near Quebec City in Canada in memory of the 7,000 Irish men, women, and children who are buried there.
Grosse Ile was a quarantine station during the Famine which became known as L’Ile des Irlandais — the Island of the Irish.
