As Chair of the National Famine Commemoration Committee (NFCC), I am responsible for ensuring that appropriate arrangements are in place to commemorate the Great Irish Famine. This year’s National Famine Commemoration took place on Saturday 12th May in University College Cork, while the International Famine Commemoration was hosted at Williamstown, Melbourne on Sunday 28 October.
While decisions in relation to a permanent exhibition space within a State funded museum in Dublin as part of the State commemoration of the Great Famine would be operational matters for the relevant cultural institutions or other entities concerned, officials in my Department, in consultation with the NFCC, will continue to examine options for further commemorative measures to the tragic events of that era.