Dunbrody Famine Ship and Ros Tapestry

Below is the Dunbrody famine ship. A replica built in Quebec in the mid 1900's to honor the Irish who were lost in the Great Famine of 1847. The population of Ireland went from 8 million at that tim eto 4 million. Today, the population is about 6 million so you can see how long it has taken to regain their people. Not all those 4 million died of starvation, some are unacounted for, 1 million emmigrated to NY and Canada and 1 million died of starvation.

In this picture, you are looking at the bunks for the 'Steerage' or the poor passengers aboard the ship. They were only allowed to go above deck for a half hour per day and only one person from each family was allowed up to cook over the open fire. Of course if it was raining, they could not cook so ate raw food or nothing. Each bunk you see had 7-10 people 'living' on it. Obviously not all of them could sit or lie down together so they had to take turns. Many people died on the way over to NaA and were committed overboard as a burial. They lived like this for 50 days to get across the Atlantic Ocean.

The quarters below were for captain and first class patrons of the ship. These people were fed three times a day and allowed up on deck anytime they wished, compared to the Steerage people who were locked in and had very limited exposure to fresh air. They used buckets as toilets with virtually no privacy. It was a great leap of faith for the Irish to come aboard these vessels, I don't think I would have been able to do it, but many rathered this high risk than starving in Ireland.

Today we drove from Kilkenny to New Ross and our next stop was the Ros Tapestry. I am amazed at this display or craftmanship, detail and devotion to history. Take a look at the website for the amazing story if you are interested and you can also see the rest of the 15 paintings, most of which have now been converted into tapestries each 6x4 feet large. I met the ladies Susan Synott and Mary Maher, who are also stitchers of this monumental project of history. Both are very passionate about their work and are quite skilled with a needle. It took the last ten years to complete ten tapestries, which now hang in the gallery. The last five are under construction, or in the que and they project they will finish in the next 2-3 years. This is history making history and will be such a valuable asset to the country of Ireland.

http://www.rostapestry.com/

You can see how she is situated just in front of the painting, painted by Ann Griffin Bernstorff (who did the research into all the 15 paintings), which was used to trace an exact copy of the picture with pencil on the Jacobean linen. Just to give you an idea of how long this takes, it takes 1 hour to stitch a square inch (remember these panels are 4x6 feet in size).

Here is the original painting from which they are currently working:

Below are two photos of what is on the works now. You can see the delicate and detailed work, how the stitches create flow and movement and texture. The thread is made of Scottish wool and the linen comes from England. They are working with a palate of 450 colors and use 7-8 basic embroidery stitches.

No one is allowed to touch or take a photo of any completed works in the gallers so I feel special that I was able to take these photos of the work in progress. Each volunteer gets to stitch their name on the side (not visible to see) of the tapestry they helped to stitch so they will be remembered, as well, ad final tapestry is planned to credit the volunteers and on it they will all stitch their names. It too will be displayed in the gallery eventually.

If you come to Ireland, this impressive collection will be well worth the trip to the South East of Ireland!