Soup kitchen re-enactment at this year's Famine Graveyard Commemoration

The annual ecumenical commemoration in the Robinstown Famine burial ground will feature a Famine era soup kitchen reenactment this year. Organised by the Mullingar Famine Graveyard Committee, the 2026 commemoration is on Wednesday June 24 at 7.30pm.

This year marks the 180th anniversary of the first total failure of the potato crop in 1846, a time when in excess of three million people depended on it for their subsistence.

To cope with the subsequent food crisis, soup kitchens were set up all over the country. That form of relief certainly saved many lives, but it was also a humiliating experience for those who had to queue publicly with their food vessels, bowls and billy cans to receive their rations.

Some of the so called Famine Pots used to cook the soup survived in Westmeath and the planned reenactment on Wednesday June 24 will feature a unique example of one such Westmeath Famine Bowl.

Musical accompaniment will be provided by Dick Hogan, Eamon Battle and Val Johnston and Enda Finnerty will give his rendition of Johnny McEvoy’s The Famine Song.

There will also be a short ecumenical service, followed by a talk on the Westmeath soup kitchens by historian Seamus O’Brien.