A group of Quakers (Society of Friends) formed a relief Committee in 1846 to distribute aid to the suffering people during the Great Hunger. .The Colmanstown story will be told in full by Rob Goodbody in an event hosted by the Skehana & District Heritage Group as part of their contribution to Heritage Week 2017 on Thursday August 24th at 8.30pm in Screene’s of Guilka.
A group of Quakers (Society of Friends) formed a relief Committee in 1846 to distribute aid to the suffering people during the Great Hunger. In 1848 they leased 1000 acres of land at Colmanstown, Co. Galway, with the intention of establishing a Model Farm as a teaching institute and the farm was to be self-sufficient. When the Central Relief Committee arrived to inspect in 1852 they found a flourishing farm operating in what, three years earlier, had been among the most desolate wastes in Ireland.
This project was continued long after the end of the famine though the Quakers only remained in Colmanstown until 1863. Colmanstown never made a profit, but each year it turned out young farmers well trained in agricultural methods applicable to the particular Irish conditions.
The Colmanstown story will be told in full by Rob Goodbody in an event hosted by the Skehana & District Heritage Group as part of their contribution to Heritage Week 2017 on Thursday August 24th at 8.30pm in Screene’s of Guilka. Mr. Goodbody, a building historian, is a member of the historical committee of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). He has published a number of books, including A Suitable Channel - Quaker relief in Ireland's Great Famine, published many articles on the famine and lectured widely on the topic.
