The O'Hara Evictions 170 years ago, with Aidan O'Hara

When learning about the history of our people in school, one of the images imprinted on young minds is that of the cruel eviction scenes that were depicted in drawings, paintings, and photographs reproduced in school texts. To project organiser Aidan O'Hara those who carried out those harsh treatments seemed to have be unfeeling brutes, devoid of humanity. He later learned that his family were among those very people so harshly dealt with. His heritage project will deal with what he has learned about what happened the O’Hara family in Longford, and the state of Ireland in the nineteenth century when famine, eviction and emigration combined to create a cataclysmic change in Irish society.

#HeritageWeek #MyHeritageWeek #Longford

This is one of a series of events organised by groups and individuals in County Longford to celebrate National Heritage Week 2020 - Learning From Our Heritage.

Aidan O'Hara is a broadcaster and historian based in Co. Longford.