19th Century Potato Famine Ship, the Jeannie Johnston

The ship tells the story of the Great Famine which swept Ireland in the middle of the 19th century. The original Jeannie Johnston made its maiden voyage to Quebec in Canada on 24 April 1848, with 193 emigrants on board. From 1848 to 1855, the ship carried over 2,500 Irish people across the Atlantic as the mass exodus from Ireland continued. Complete with on-board museum, the replica vessel was built in County Kerry as one of the Irish Republic's Millennium projects. Young people from nationalist and unionist backgrounds helped with the construction of the three masted vessel, which features, below decks, a mock-up of what it was like for emigrants making the perilous journey from Ireland to North America in the mid 1800s. The Jeanie Johnston was the only emigrant 'famine' ship never to lose the life of a passenger during its voyages. The vessel has been created as a sail training vessel and a floating museum of the famine era in Ireland.

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