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On the outskirts of Donegal Town is an old cemetery where victims of the Great Famine (1845-1849) who perished from hunger and disease, are buried.
At the side of a road, near our hotel at Lough Eske, is a cast iron Famine Pot, also known as a Brachán Pot, Soup Pot or Workhouse Pot. This pot was used to feed an estimated hundreds of people daily when the famine was its height in 1847 following the total failure of the potato crop. People would walk for up to 30 kilometres to eat the soup or porridge mixture it contained.

Famine relief came from unexpected places. Funds were collected from as far afield as India, Turkey, China, Australia and North America. The Choctaw Indian Nation sent $170 dollars to Ireland. Inmates in English prisons, convicts on board ships, Parisian ‘Can Can’ dancers and the Sultan of Turkey are all said to have donated.
Quakers too lived up to their name. In 1846, the Quakers, also known as the Society of Friends, established the first Soup Kitchens and provided 294 large cast iron pots or boilers which were cast in a foundry in the north of England. The Quakers dispatched 19 famine pots to Donegal by boat, taking them ashore at Arranmore Island and Donegal Town.
By mid 1847, over 3 million across Ireland were receiving their only sustenance from the soup or porridge that was cooked in these famine pots.
Support in times of need has always been vital