Ireland - Choctaw Nation - Kindred Spirits

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Published in Ireland - Social interactions and entertainment - 6 - 28 Oct 20 00:08

A small bit of History

The Great Irish Famine (1845â€“1849) was not caused, asÂ popularly thought, by the failure of the potato crop.Â No it was the shortage of food caused, when the potatoÂ crop failed and the British forciblyÂ exported the remaining food out the country.

Estimates of the death toll vary but from Wikipedia A census immediately after the famine in 1851 counted 6,552,385, a drop of over 1.5Â million in 10 years. The census commissioners estimated that, at the normal rate of population increase, the population in 1851 should have grown to just over 9Â million if the famine had not occurred

Anyway this article is not about the famine but an amazing act of generosity that occurred at the time.

But this generous act must first be seen in context of those who delivered it.

The Choctaw Tribe of America.

In the 1840s the Choctaw had recently been subjected to the Trail of Tears, a devastating forced relocation of 60000 tribe members which directly lead to the death of thousands.Â Yet in their suffering they read of the famine inflicted on Ireland and somehow raised, in 1847, $170 sending to to Ireland for famine relief.

This act of selfless generosity has never left the consciousness of us Irish.Â Â

In 2015 a monument named Kindred Spirits was built to honour this debt.

https://turtlebunbury.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/choctaw-kindred-spirits1.jpg

In 2018 our Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Leo Varadkar, announced the creation of theÂ The Choctaw-Ireland Scholarship Programme. to foster and deepen ties between our nations.

And this year, in the midst of the terrible affliction Covid 19 has brought upon the world, and in particular to the great nations of Native Americans, the Navajo Nation had set up a Go Fund me page to try fund basic facilities to help stem the spread of the virus.Â Soon they started to notice a LOT of donations arriving into the fund.Â Investigating they were surprised to learn they were coming from Ireland.Â My nation was repaying the debt owed 173 years later..

Links on events in this story

Great Irish Famine
Trail of Tears
Kindred Spirits
ï»¿The Choctaw-Ireland Scholarship Programmeï»¿
Covid 19 Fund Storyï»¿

My greatest respect to the Native AmericanÂ Peoples and with what they have endured since the invasion and occupation of THEIR lands.