The Dunbrody Project

The Dunbrody Project involves the construction by the Trust of a replica of the ship, Dunbrody. The original Dunbrody was built in 1845 in Quebec by an Irishman from Co. Derry, Thomas Hamilton Oliver for William Graves of New Ross and Reuben Deaves of Cork.
The Dunbrody plied its trade of cargo and passengers between Ireland and North and South America from 1845 to 1870 approximately, bringing many emigrants to the New World.
It will be built using the local skilled workforce in New Ross and young people will also be trained with these necessary skills. She will be built to the original design, but using more economical techniques with timber to conserve forest resources: learning these modern techniques will have immediate career value.
The Barque "Dunbrody" captures an era in which Irish people, their dreams, aspirations and memories were carried across the seas. This is a unique attraction. Nothing like it has been done before.

Within the Dunbrody, innovative displays will explore two major inter-linked stories:

The Dunbrody and the experience of emigrants who sailed in her.
19th century Irish emigration and achievement.

Life on the Dunbrody

The story will focus on a single, well documented voyage. In the reconstructed interior of the ship, exactly as it was when the Dunbrody plied the Atlantic, visitors will explore the following stories:

Officers, crew and passengers - who were they?
The physical division of the ship.
The length and route of the voyage.
Daily life on board.
Disease, hunger and death.
Landfall. Canada and Grosse Ile.
The fate of the emigrants.

19th Century Emigration and Achievement

Within the hold of the Dunbrody, visitors will explore interactively different aspects of the story of 19th century emigration and achievement:

European emigration in the 19th century.
The roots and pattern of Irish emigration
Destinations: North and South America, South Africa, Australia and Britain.
Achievements: individual stories of success in business, politics, war, religion, art and literature, with stories of women achievers given a prominent role.
The Graves Family and the building of the Dunbrody.
The rise and impact of the Kennedys.

Visitors will climb the gangplank to the main deck of the Dunbrody.
They will descend a companionway to enter the quarters of the Captain and Mate, and the stateroom assigned to important passengers.
These spaces will be fitted out exactly as they were for a voyage, with all the clutter of everyday life. A mixture of authentic and replica objects will be used, but the appearance has to be that of a ship just built. Visitors will see the comparative comfort of these quarters, and discover the quality of food and drink served here. The route of the ship and length of voyage will be explained, for this is where charts are kept.
Visitors then pass into the passenger quarters. Again these will be authentically fitted out to show the cramped conditions and meagre possessions of the emigrants. Passengers will tell the visitors where they have come from, why they are leaving Ireland, what the food and water ration is like, and how the emigrants are organised, so that only their representative is allowed to address the Captain.
Visitors will now move through into the crew quarters. In this recreated space they will learn about the size of the crew and their duties, as well as their experiences on other voyages.
Visitors will then descend another companionway into the main hold. This contains barrels, bales, boxes, and chests. Exploring this cargo, visitors discover computer interactives and video screens which tell the story of Irish emigration and achievement. They discover why people went, where they went and what they achieved. Some of the interactives will allow visitors to ask questions of individual emigrants about their descendants.
A unique resource is the Emigration database , which records the names of all the emigrants from Ireland in the 19th century, at least as far as the surviving ships' manifests will allow.

This is a Ł2.5m project of which Ł1.6m has been provided by EU Grant Aid. The Trust continues to fundraise. If you wish to support this project you can request more information by e-mailing jfktrust@iol.ie or our postal address can be found at the bottom of the home page.

The Creative Team

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