Ireland

Choctaw sculpture honours aid sent to Ireland during Famine

Sculptor says he was amazed at bond shown between the two nations despite being ‘4,000 miles from each other across ocean’

The bronze sculpture The Gift which was unveiled at the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park, Co Roscommon, and sculptor Brendan O’Neill, who is based in Maryland USA. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Marese McDonagh
Tue Aug 06 2024 - 19:00

The generosity and compassion the Choctaw nation extended to the Irish during the Famine could serve as an example for all nations today, according to an artist commemorating the 19th century gift sent from one destitute people to another.

Sculptor Brendan O’Neill, from Maryland in the US, whose great grandfather Richard Bernard O’Neill emigrated from Carlow in 1850, was speaking outside the National Famine Museum in Strokestown, Co Roscommon on Tuesday.

A new sculpture has been unveiled at the National Famine Museum in Strokestown which commemorates the aid provided by the Choctaw Nation to Ireland. Video: Bryan O'Brien

He was on hand with 20 members of his family, including his wife Susan, their four children and 10 grandchildren, at the unveiling of his life-size bronze sculpture entitled The Gift.

The artist said he was stunned when he heard just three years ago that the Choctaw community of Oklahoma had in March 1847 collected some $170, “equivalent to several thousands of dollars today”, and sent it to famine-ravaged Ireland.

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The sculpture unveiled at Strokestown Park, an estate which lost 1,490 tenants to the “coffin ships” bound for north America in 1847, is a replica of one presented to the Choctaw Cultural Centre in Oklahoma last September.

A new life-size bronze sculpture titled 'The Gift' which commemorates the aid provided by the Choctaw Nation to Ireland during the Famine, has been unveiled at the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park. Pictured is sculptor Brendan O’Neill with his wife Susan. Photo: Bryan O’Brien

The artwork depicts a Choctaw woman, in deference to the matriarchal structure of the Choctaw society, extending an ampo (eating bowl) while a younger Choctaw man reaches out in a gesture of friendship.

Mr O’Neill (82) said he believed it was important at every opportunity to make people aware of this story. “It is an example for all nations especially today when we are such a fractured global community,” he said.

The sculptor, whose work was already inspired by his interest and admiration for Native American history and culture, said he was amazed when he heard of the bond between the Choctaw and Irish nations despite being “4,000 miles from each other across ocean”.