This spring, Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute will open the exhibition “Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger,” which tells the story of the religious orders in Montreal whose members gave selflessly to Irish immigrants during their time of greatest need.
Christine Kinealy, PhD, founding director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, is presenting this exhibition in collaboration with Jason King, PhD, Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at Moore Institute at Galway University, and the Arnold Bernhard Library.
Many fled from Ireland during the Great Hunger and immigrated to Canada. Famine immigrants to Montreal were not only among the poorest of the poor, but also many of them arrived sick with typhus fever. Despite this, a number of people in the English and French Canadian communities provided the ailing and the dying with shelter and support. In the forefront of this compassionate movement were the Sisters of Charity, also known as the Grey Nuns.
The exhibition will be housed in the Lender Special Collection Room in Quinnipiac University’s Arnold Bernhard Library and will be open to the public starting April 1, 2015 through March 2016. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Please call 203-582-2634 for hours during the academic intercessions. Admission is free. Tours are by appointment: sarah.churchill@quinnipiac.edu.