Monday, 27-October-2025


My Mom and Steve were visiting from Massachusetts!

It was the weeks around my graduation from Trinity, and having family visit was absolutely lovely – life was a bit hectic and chaotic, of course, but it always is and always will be, it seems. We were making the most of it, having a lovely time, and getting out and about as much as possible.

One of the fun things about having people visit is that it gives an excuse to go do the touristy things that’re hard to rationalize on your own… or at least it feels that way for me. One of those things was visiting the famine ship Jeanie Johnson – something that’d been on my list, but I never really had a good excuse to overcome the inertia and actually go do.

So… we went!

It was lovely, if a bit depressing of a story – this ship was one of the very few famine ships (ships carrying Irish emigrants away from the famine) that didn’t have anyone die on board during its many voyages. Of course, the tour included the context to the statement – explaining the positive conditions aboard the Jeanie Johnson, specifically in comparison to the horribly squalid conditions seen aboard the many other ships with less pristine track records.

Regardless, it was a valuable lesson – and a beautifully restored ship!