A new exhibit in The Lender Family Special Collection Room, located in the Arnold Bernhard Library, opened on March 25, it highlights the relationship built between the Irish and Indigenous people throughout history.
The “Indigenous Aid to Ireland during the Great Hunger” walks visitors through a timeline of the relationship, starting in 1830, when President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. This began the forced removal of 70,000 Native Americans, known as the Trail of Tears.
Then, in 1845, the Great Hunger, also known as the Irish Potato Famine, led to widespread starvation among the Irish, killing or displacing millions
“It’s remarkable because in America, (the Indigenous people), their land had been taken from them,” said Christine Kinealy, a history professor and the director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute. “They were suffering themselves. That year, (the Irish’s) potatoes and corn harvest was very poor. So here were people who were suffering, and had suffered hearing about the plight of people in Ireland, and they felt moved to send money to Ireland. So the two stories combined, we felt we should tell people.”
Kinealy came to Quinnipiac in 2014 and took an interest in The Lender Family Special Collection Room after her office was placed in the library. She began collaborating with the Arnold Bernhard Library to curate the exhibits about Irish history.
In recent years, the collection room has featured exhibits about Oscar Wilde and a group of nuns in Canada who aided the Irish during the famine.
For the “Indigenous Aid to Ireland during the Great Hunger” exhibit, Kinealy worked with some friends in Ireland and Canada who also study Irish history and other connections to bring the exhibit to life.
“It is falling apart, but it’s from the 1830s we have The Illustrated London News, which was a newspaper produced in London from 1842 onwards,” Kinealy said. “We have a copy from 1849 which shows how badly people were suffering in Ireland. So that’s from our library connection.”
In addition to various literature from the famine, there’s a model-version of a sculpture in Cork County, Ireland that recognizes the gift of the Choctaw People during the Great Hunger.
“I also (like) the statue (for) the Choctaw people,” Kinealy said. “I think it’s just a great model for us all to have at the moment, you have this concept of kindness and not doing it for any transactional reason, just doing it because it’s the right thing to do.”
The exhibit offers interactive aspects to learn about the dynamics between Indigenous people and the Irish, such as a 40-minute documentary and coloring station.
The “Indigenous Aid to Ireland during the Great Hunger” exhibit is open from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and 12 – 5 p.m. on Sundays.
“I think it’s a tribute to all of these Native Americans. It’s not just the Choctaws and the Cherokees,” Kinealy said. “It’s a way of life that was lost and (to) just try and maybe recreate it and say how beautiful that way of life was because of that kindness that seemed to be at the center of it.”
