New Ross and Dunbrody Famine Ship

New Ross is in County Wexford and is a port that was used during the time of the Great Famine to send emigrants from Ireland to other parts of the world including Canada and the United States. It is my belief that New Ross may also be the same port that my great-great-great-grandfather, John Jackman, came through to board the ship named Ann to sail to Canada to start a new life. I don’t know why he decided to do this but he did.

New Ross has a tourist site that is not usually seen in most Irish ports, a replica of a famine ship. The original ship had the name of Dunbrody and has been replicated well in most respects. I believe that the replica was built in the same shipyard in Quebec as the original ship.

The original ship was built to bring lumber, furs, and other natural resources from Canada to Ireland. As it was going to be sailing back to Canada with no cargo, the Dunbrody was outfitted with bunks and took famine victims with them. The bunks were removable so that they could continue to carry cargo on their way back to Ireland.

There were two types of passengers, passengers who could pay more and have a cabin and passengers who paid less, or whose landlords paid passage for them and looked after their own needs while onboard ship. Once arriving in Quebec, they often had to wait onboard before disembarking at Gross Iles for medical inspections. Most of the emigrant ships did not prepare well for their passengers, some of them running out of fresh drinking water before their turn to disembark their passengers, but the Dunbrody had a couple of captains who were humane and made sure that there was enough water for consumption as well as cleanliness. They had very little loss of passengers and their passengers wrote back to Ireland praising the two captains.

There were also some actors who helped to bring about the vision of what life was like on the famine ship while enroute to Canada. The people portrayed were real people and the program was an interactive presentation. I am sure that I have a better understanding of what happened to the people of that time. I don’t know if any of my ancestors experienced this as most of my Irish ancestors came to Canada in the early 19^th century.

New Ross is a port that is located on the River Barrow and is near the border with County Kilkenny. It is about 20 miles north east of Waterford which is another port. It is about 23 miles west north west of Wexford, the county seat for County Wexford. New Ross is the third largest community in County Wexford. The day that we were there, there was a cool breeze and it did rain while we were visiting the Dunbrody.

New Ross looks as if it is a clean town. We were at the waterfront and did not have much of a chance to see the rest of the town. Once we were finished at the Dunbrody exhibit, we were on our way back to Waterford, for a walking tour, dinner, and a night’s rest.

Galway City

One of the western ports in Ireland is at Galway City and is quite an old one. The French and the Spanish trade came mostly through Galway due to its location and the fact that the temperatures are rarely extreme. The wind can be quite strong although the city is sheltered as it is located near the eastern end of Galway Bay on the north side of the bay.

When visiting Galway, a walking tour can be arranged. You should let the company or the tour guide know the major interests of the group as they can adjust the route accordingly. Once our tour guide realized that he had mostly family historians in the group, he took us to see a couple of spots that we would otherwise not have seen.

I found that Galway was a colourful city, with bright colours for shops and, where there was stone, doors. Several times throughout our tour of Ireland, we saw houses and buildings all with different colours. We didn’t really question it, but the tour guides gave us the explanation anyway. In the past, when men went to the local pub and imbibed too much alcohol, they could stumble home by themselves as they knew the colour of their door and the approximation of the location of their homes. When Queen Victoria made it law that all the doors had to be black in mourning for Prince Albert, many men stumbled into the wrong house. It didn’t take long for the coloured doors to come back.

I mentioned earlier that the Spanish came to Ireland for trade. During this time period, Galway was a walled city as were many cities in Great Britain and Europe. And, as time goes on, if walls are not necessary, they don’t usually get any upkeep done on them. When this happens, the walls usually grow weak and disintegrate. This happened with the London Wall in the area where some of my ancestors live (yes, I did have an ancestor who lived in the Wall of London). It also happened in Galway. However, there are remnants of the wall still standing. The remaining parts of the wall are the most famous remembrance of the time when the Spanish sailed to Ireland and is now called the Spanish Arch and was built in 1519 to 1520.

Galway was also one of the western ports that emigrants came through to travel to Canada and the United States during colonial times and since. I believe that some of my ancestors came through here. They were a family and could have been travelling with other family members or friends. They left Ireland and was in Quebec City in 1830 according to a notice in a newspaper posted by William Sanderson, the brother of John Robert Sanderson. William was looking for his brother in the 1840s because he had heard nothing from him since 1830. The wealthy merchants of Galway suffered a severe loss during the Great Famine. Many people made the decision to leave Ireland to build a new life elsewhere. Otherwise, these people were facing death by starvation. The economic loss was so great that it was felt by the city, and, I believe, the country, until the economic bubble at the end of the twentieth century.

As you can see with the photographs, the majority of the streets are narrow. There is also an archaeological excavation in process. We were there at a time that the workers were taking a break.

I enjoyed our time in Galway. As with other places, I could have spent more time there for both research and for wandering, getting to know the place better. A tour is a good idea for the first trip to a new area, but you need to go back so that you can learn more about the community and the environment that your ancestors lived in.