On Tuesday the 27th of February our 1st year students together with their Tutors and Deans went on a school trip. They visited Epic, The Irish Emigration Museum, received a guided tour of The Famine Ship Jeanie Johnston and participated in a Workshop on Irish Women's History. Below they present their account of the trip.
Epic Emigration Museum
By Isabel McCabe
Our year group went to Epic Emigration Museum on Tuesday 27th February, and it certainly was an enjoyable trip. The museum was full of colour, written displays and interesting stories about Irish people who emigrated. There were lots of fun interactive activities that taught us about Irish people who left the country during the Famine and afterwards.
I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all had a great day.
The Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship
By Sofia Soric
One part of our school trip was a guided tour of the Jeanie Johnston famine ship.
We were told a lot about the history of the ship and the famine. The Jeanie Johnston was originally a cargo ship but was used as a passenger ship during The Great Famine in Ireland. It carried passengers to North America. In contrast to most ships that made this trip at the time, not a single life was lost on the Jeanie Johnston.
We went down to into the ship to see where the passengers would have stayed. There were mannequins of some of the people who travelled on the ship. We were told some of their stories and we learned more about the ship. We really enjoyed seeing and learning about the Jeanie Johnston. It was a fun and and interesting experience.
Workshop on Famous Irish Women
By Erin Watters
During our tour we went attend a workshop on Irish Women through history. We learned about women who fought discrimination and succeeded in their careers, that were male dominated, for example journalism, science and medicine.
Some of the women we learned about were Nelly Bly. She had to disguise her gender, she pretended she was a man to get her hard-hitting pieces published in the newspapers. She went on an undercover mission to an asylum to see firsthand the terrible conditions there and wrote about her experience.
It was a great experience.
