dunbrody irish emigrant ship new centre emigration history

Sceala Clann Counsellor Location: NZ

sis told me all about this , she was there for the opening. this should be useful for all the descendants of the irish emigrants of days gone by.
beautifull irish song of the forced emigrant and some good views on board the dunbrody.
those of you who are descended from these irish emigrants , do you have any stories handed down of these ships.

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Ireland’s first National Centre for Emigration History entitled “Dunbrody, An Irish American Story,” incorporating the Irish America Hall of Fame will be officially opened by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Dr Leo Varadkar TD and Entertainer, Michael Flatley in New Ross Co Wexford on Friday, 8th July 2011.
This new state of the art visitor centre has been constructed in a brand new, 1500 square metre space in a custom built visitors centre, located on the Quay side of the river Barrow in New Ross and next to the hugely popular Dunbrody Famine Ship. This new world class interactive immigration experience has been cleverly integrated with the Dunbrody Famine Ship.
The new purpose built visitor centre will allow the visitor travel on an historical thought provoking one way sea going journey in famine times. The experience begins Quayside with the authentic recreation of the New Ross of the 1840s. Here the passenger will join fellow travelers paying for their journey. These fellow emigrants will tell of their life stories and their hopes for a new life in America. Various audio and visual displays capture the atmosphere of a passenger stepping onboard Dunbrody and setting sail for the New World, America.
Onboard the authentically recreated ship , you will encounter re-actors telling their stories of being forced to emigrate to seek a better life , and experience the sights , smells and sounds of a Famine Ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the 1840’s. The passenger then arrives in North America; here the emigrant witnesses the impact Irish emigrants have had on American life and culture. The centre piece of this exhibition is the Irish America Hall of Fame, which is being developed in collaboration with Niall O’Dowd and Patricia Harty of Irish America Magazine; the exhibition celebrates and honours the lives, works and achievements of noted Irish individuals such as, President John F Kennedy and the Kennedys, Henry Ford, President Clinton, and Grace Kelly, to name but a few.
Commenting on the forthcoming opening Sean Reidy, Chief Executive of the Dunbrody Famine Ship said, “We are delighted that we will be shortly unveiling this world class visitor experience that will truly capture the public’s attention from start to finish. We have painstakingly recreated an experience that illustrates the passion and drive of the Irish to succeed in difficult circumstances. The Irish America Hall of Fame is such a celebration of noted Irish Americans who have achieved greatly, in their chosen profession.”
He then went onto say, “Over ten years ago, we built a replica of a 19th Century Famine Ship, from that time over 750,000 people have enjoyed our Quayside experience, of emigrants’ tales from Ireland to North America in the 1840s. We have found from our research a need to develop our project further and reinforce the emotional journey; many people took during that important time in our nation’s history.”
The visitor centre is a brand new build of €2.6 million, €1.88 million of which was provided under the National Development Plan, administered by Failte Ireland on behalf of the Department of Tourism.
dunbrody famine ship tour

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the original dunbrody ship
Historical Information
A Life on the Ocean
Dunbrody is a 458 tonne three-masted barque, 176 feet (53.7 metres) long. Her hull length is 120 ft. (36.6 m), she has a beam of 28 ft (8.5 m), a draft of 11.5 ft (3.5 m) and has a sail area of 10,100 square ft. (c. 940 sq. m.).
The present ship is a reconstruction of the original Dunbrody, built in Quebec in 1845 by Thomas Hamilton Oliver, an Irish emigrant from Co. Derry.
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Port Of New Ross 1800'sShe took less than six months to build under the careful supervision of John Baldwin, who captained her from 1845 to March 1848. The merchant Graves family from New Ross commissioned her. They commissioned eight such ships to carry cargo from America and Canada.
Dunbrody was primarily a cargo vessel and carried timber from Canada, cotton from the southern states of the USA and guano from Peru. The ship was fitted out with bunks and facilities for passengers desperate to escape the harrowing conditions at home. From 1845 to 1851, between April and September, she carried passengers on her outward journeys to Canada and the USA. She usually carried 176 people but on one crossing, at the height of the Famine in 1847, she carried 313.
Many of the passengers were the evicted tenants of Lord Fitzwilliam's Wicklow estates and Viscount de Vesci's Portlaoise estates. She carried two classes of passenger - the cabin passenger who paid between £5 and £8 and the steerage passenger who paid between £3 15s 0p and £4. This fare was at least the equivalent of two months income for a tenant farmer in the 1840's.

The cabin passengers (usually Protestant gentry) had food and services provided but the steerage passengers had to cook and fend for themselves. 1847 was the worst year of the Famine. In the first open months of the Spring 40 ships were waiting to disembark and the quarantine station at Grosse isle in Canada had more than 1,100 patients suffering in terrible conditions. In May 1847, Captain Baldwin finally landed his passengers at Grosse isle after a very long passage. In a letter addressed to William Graves, he reported "the Dunbrody was detained in quarantine for five days because there were too many ships queuing in the St. Lawrence River. Doctor Douglas is nearly singled-handed….everyday, dozens of corpses are thrown overboard from many ships….I have heard that some of them have no fresh water left and the passengers and crew have to drink the water from the river. God help them!"
Although the Dunbrody was detained at Grosse isle on a number of occasions, her onboard mortality rate was practically non-existent. This was, without doubt, due to her good and humane captains, Captain Baldwin and his successor, Captain John W. Williams. Emigrants writing back home to Ireland praised their dedication to their crew and passengers more than once. Thanks to a very well organised overseas mail system, the Captains were also able to keep in regular contact with William Graves.
Dunbrody remained in the Graves family ownership for 24 years. She was sold in1869 and became a British registered ship. In 1874, en route to Quebec from Cardiff, Dunbrody's captain chose not to wait for a pilot to assist him in navigating the St. Lawrence. He paid for this when he ran aground. She was fortunate, however, to be bought by a salvage company, repaired and sold on. Unfortunately, in 1875, she took her second and fatal grounding. Sailing home to Liverpool with a full timber cargo worth 12,500, a fierce gale blew up and drove her dangerously off her usual route towards the shores of Labrador. Though the exact details are not known, it is assumed that if she grounded fully laden with a timber cargo, her aging hull would have been broken up beyond economic repair.
Dunbrody (1845)
The Dunbrody was a three-masted barque built in Quebec in 1845 by Thomas Hamilton Oliver for the Graves family, merchants from New Ross in Wexford.
She operated primarily as a cargo vessel, carrying timber and guano to Ireland.

Dunbrody Passenger service
She was fitted with bunks and between April to September from 1845 to 1851, she carried passengers on the outward leg to North America. These passengers were people desperate to escape the potato famine in Ireland at the time and conditions for steerage passengers were tough.

An area of 6 foot square was allocated to up to 4 passengers (who might not be related) and their children. Often 50% died on passage (they were known as "coffin ships"). However, the mortality rate on the Dunbrody was exceptionally low, no doubt due to her captains, John Baldwin and his successor John W. Williams, with passengers writing home often praising their dedication. On one passage with 313 passengers, almost twice her normal complement, only 6 died.

Dunbrody Disposition
In 1869, after 24 years of service with the Graves family, she was sold. In 1874, while travelling from Cardiff to Quebec, she ran aground in the Saint Lawrence River. She was bought by a salvage company, repaired and sold again but in 1875 she foundered on the Labrador coast and was lost.
dunbrody - irish american story. irish america hall of fame

the dunbrody replica ship built in ireland
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The Dunbrody is a three-masted barque built in New Ross in 2001 by New Ross Drydock for the Dunbrody Project, with the financial assistance of the J.F. Kennedy Trust.

The Dunbrody is a full-scale sea-going replica of the Dunbrody, launched in 1845 and wrecked in 1875.

Since May 2001 the replica Dunbrody has been open to visitors at the quayside in New Ross. Visitors can see an interactive exhibition and experience life on board an emigrant ship. There is also a large database, complied in collaboration with the Balch Institute, of emigrants who sailed from England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales in the 19th century.

dunbrody - irish american story. irish america hall of fame

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