There’s a sense of joy amongst the team behind the Kilkenny Famine Experience this afternoon, despite the venue missing out on a coveted national award.
The popular tourist attraction made it all the way to a shortlist of just 36 finalists in the National Lottery Good Causes Awards.
However, a virtual ceremony this lunchtime saw them lose to Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland as winners of the Heritage Category.
Marion Acreman is the manager of MacDonagh Junction shopping centre, where the famine experience is based.
She says there are no hard feelings about the loss, and it means the world to the experience’s staff just to have been nominated.
“We weren’t disappointed at all, we were just really happy to be shortlisted, and it put something so positive into the diary here after such a tough year” she told KCLR News. “When they approached us to enter I said ‘wow it’s lovely to actually be considered for a national award’. I mean, the projects that were shortlisted are absolutely amazing, with the people involved and the volunteering, there’s just huge cross collaboration. So it’s been a lovely afternoon, all of us 36 finalists were on the Zoom call chatting and wishing each other well. I just feel so privileged that our project is among such a high calibre across the country.”
It’s only onwards and upwards for the Famine Experience from here, Marion promises.
The site’s garnered visitors from across the globe since opening in November 2017, with many eager to learn the history of the location. The remains of 976 human famine victims were found there in 2005, while the shopping centre was under construction.
Marion says a discovery as monumental as that deserves a fitting tourist attraction.
“The project, in my mind, is in its infancy. What we did here with the tour was just the first step in what I think should be a national attraction for the Irish famine” she shared. “I mean, what happened in Kilkenny, with the discovery of nearly a thousand human remains, and the osteoarchaeology that came with it, is the most important significant discovery in the world relating to the Irish famine. I think there’s huge potential for us in Kilkenny to harness that, and it’s going to take a lot of people wanting the same goal but it’s certainly something that we’ve identified for the last ten years here and we will keep working to find a way to make it an even bigger attraction so that people can share their heritage as well as the genealogy of Ireland.”
