An Albany Ship for Ireland:
Irish Famine Relief

In l847 there was a nationwide campaign of voluntary aid to the starving in Ireland and Scotland. Professor Harvey Strum will discuss the campaign and Albany's important role.

Albany created a local committee and citizens, Catholics and Protestants, joined in raising funds to send provisions via the New York City Irish Relief Committee for distribution by the Society of Friends in Dublin. This effort eventually grew into a national campaign for Ireland and Scotland, with citizens across the country putting aside their political, ethnic, and religious differences as Free Blacks in Richmond, Jews in New York and Charleston, German Americans, and Choctaws and Cherokees contributed to what became the national campaign for Ireland and Scotland.

Harvey Strum is professor of History and Political Science, Program Coordinator for Social Sciences and Social Studies, and Chair
of the Liberal Studies Dept at Sage College of Albany. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Syracuse University, has published articles on Irish famine relief in Brooklyn (l998 New York Irish History), New York
City (Seaport, Fall 2000),Illinois (2001 Journal of State Historical Society of Ill), Rhode Island (2002 Rhode Island History) and South Carolina (2002 South Carolina Historical Magazine).