It was a perfect thing to go to visit the Dunbroady Famine ship on a rainy day like that. Dunbroady famine ship was one of these so-called “Coffin ships” that carried thousands of immigrants to North America between 1845 and 1851.
The trip lasted for six weeks and all the passengers were picked into the ship like sardines in a can. The wealthier passengers who were able to buy more expensive tickets were allowed a bit better circumstances but actually, it seemed awfully terrible anyway. All the second class passengers had to live together in the hold of the ship and the whole family had to sleep in the same bunk bed, despite the number of people in the family. So the number of the passengers was much smaller when they arrived at last because a lot of them died and were buried in the ocean.
When you want to visit the ship you have to take a tour and the guide gives a good overview of the life of the passengers who were immigrating because of the big Famine in the middle of the 19th century. To make it more attractive there are also two actresses who play the part of the passengers and tell their stories. One of them is a woman of the upper deck and the other is the poor one who has to live in the hold with all the other who couldn’t afford an expensive ticket.
After the tour, it is possible to wander around on your own and take some photos and that’s what we did. The rain hadn’t stopped. We had a tea at the cafe and drove back home. It was pretty dreadful to imagine the lives of these big families who just wanted to afford a better life for their children.
The tickets to the tour were made after the real tickets of the people who had really immigrated by that ship. The ticket proved that the passenger had paid and was ready to board a ship. You can also see the amount of food that every grown-up passenger was afforded and that’s very little.
Dublin Accent 