The Great Irish Famine Online project has been launched to help researchers map the famine’s devastating effects on the island, right down to parish level.
The project is a major collaboration between the University College Cork Geography Department and the Irish Government’s Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and marks another milestone in the national commemoration programme.
More than one million people died and a further million emigrated during the famine and the project uses interactive maps for researchers to chart the effect it had on Irish society between 1841 and 1851. The project website states that ‘behind the maps are stories of individuals and communities and how they fared during this traumatic period’.
The scope of the project encompasses the whole island of Ireland, including more than 3,000 civil parishes and over 1,600 towns. You can explore it at https://familytr.ee/greatirishfamineonline or follow the link from the Great Irish Famine Commemoration website, which is at www.irishfamine.ie