We tend to find peace in the confines of our routine lives, when suddenly out of nowhere, a meeting with a kindred spirit changes it all. A former Irish president is now an honorary Choctaw Chief. Reality is cold-hearted, and is paradoxically comforting too.

In 1990, several Choctaw leaders took part in the first annual Famine walk at Doolough in County Mayo two years later, Irish commemoration leaders walked the 500 mile length of the Trail of Tears. The creator, artist Alex Pentak, explained, “I wanted to show the courage, fragility and humanity that they displayed in my work.”īeyond the monument, there are many other examples of the continued link between the Irish and Choctaw people. Named “Kindred Spirits,” the magnificent memorial features nine giant stainless steel feathers, shaped into an empty bowl. A monument stands in Midleton’s Bailick Park as a tribute to the tribe’s charity during the Great Famine. Today, the Irish people are still grateful for the generosity of the Choctaw people. President Andrew Jackson to leave their ancestral lands and march 500 miles on the “Trail of Tears,” in terrible winter conditions. This exemplifies the incredible generosity of the Choctaw people, because just 16 years before, they were forced by U.S. The Choctaw Native Americans raised $170 of their own money-equivalent to thousands of dollars today- in aid to supply food for the starving Irish.

Humanitarian aid came from around the world, but the unexpected generosity of the Choctaw Nation stands out, and began a bond between the two people that continues to this day. Known as “Black 47,” this was the worst year of the famine in Ireland, where close to one million people were starving to death. The year 1847 was an extremely difficult one for the Irish people.

Kindred spirits meaning