Please join members and friends of the Museum of Newport Irish History for the second talk of its 25th Annual Lecture Series with guest speaker Loretto Horrigan Leary: “The Irish Famine Immigrant Experience in North American Quarantines”
The talk will be presented Tues. Oct. 20 at 6:00 p.m. at the Wyndham Newport Hotel, 240 Aquidneck Avenue, Middletown, RI 02842 and on Zoom
– Doors open at 5:30 PM
– Light hors d’oeuvres & cash bar available
– $10 per person fee to attend in person (cash or check @ door).
– No fee/$0 to participate via Zoom.
– Reservations are required for both in-person and virtual participation:
TO RESERVE: Visit the Event Website
TALK OVERVIEW:
Irish Famine immigrants did not simply arrive in North America. Many first endured medical inspections and quarantine on islands and in fever hospitals. Some never left; they died there and were buried in grounds associated with the quarantine stations.
This presentation will examine the human experience of Famine migration through sites such as Staten Island, New York; Grosse Île, Quebec; and Deer Island, Boston. At these sites, hunger, disease, survival, public fear, and memory shaped the immigrant journey. From overcrowded ships to quarantine wards and mass graves, these sites reveal how many who had fled Ireland’s Great Hunger continued to struggle to survive on foreign shores.
SPEAKER BIO:
Loretto Horrigan Leary is an Irish historian, researcher, and freelance journalist. She is a PhD student in History at Trinity College Dublin, where she focuses on sites of collective memory associated with Ireland’s Great Famine in North America. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Connecticut–Ireland Trade Commission. Her article, “Irish Domestic Servants and the Making of Gilded Age America,” appeared in the September/October 2026 issue of History Ireland. Her work has also been published by the Irish Examiner USA, Irish Central, Celtic Life, The Connacht Tribune, and other publications. Through her research, writing, and lectures, Ms. Leary connects academic scholarship with public history and community engagement
Questions: Ann Arnold at (401) 841-5493 or (917) 270-3372 or write NewportIrishHistory@gmail.com
