I wonder where the two wreaths are now?

The sun shone down brilliantly last week when we gathered by the quayside in Cobh. A piper played as the flags of many nations fluttered in the balmy breeze. There was a fine gathering present from ‘home and away’.

Two hundred years ago to the day, in May, 1825, there was a massive throng on that same quay. It probably was a day of hugely mixed emotions as hundreds of ‘reduced farmers’ and their families boarded ships bound for Canada.

Yes they were heading for a new life in a new country - with the promise of 70 acres of land for every family - but their hearts must have been breaking.

We’ve often heard of ‘American Wakes’ held before Irish emigrants left to go to America. A wake was normally held on the death of a family member, but going to America or Canada was akin to a bereavement.

In truth, the chance of the departing person or persons ever again seeing Ireland and their family was really non-existent.

The event in Cobh was to officially commemorate what are known as ‘The Robinson Settlements’. In 1823 and again in 1825, a total of 11 ships departed from Cobh with over 2,500 immigrants on board.

It was an initiative of the English Government to help people from Ireland settle in Canada. I suppose one could say it was a great and benevolent gesture - paying for the journey to Canada, then providing land, seed, tools, blankets, and household goods, and charging just the equivalent of fourpence an acre in annual rent.

Canada was hugely underpopulated, whereas the opposite was the case here in Ireland.

After the Napoleonic Wars ended, Ireland’s population was rising. The lumper potato was indeed a ‘super-food’ as half an acre could feed a large family for the year.

The population continued to grow as we became more and more dependent on the ‘humble spud’ -with awful consequences in the 1840s.

Under the old Brehon method of inheritance, a landowner with 20 acres left his farm equally between his sons. If there were four sons, each got five acres -........

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