William J. Duffney
By Irish Echo Staff
It’s a line that most Irish remember from their school days.
The Quakers, whoever they were, what with that funny name, were really good to the starving Irish during the Great Hunger.
Just how good will be explained in an upcoming lecture at Quinnipiac University’s great Hunger Museum in a lecture by William J. Duffney.
A retired musician, educator and postal historian, Duffney will present the lecture, “The Quakers and Irish Famine Relief,” at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8, in the Carl Hansen Student Center, Room 225, at Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Ave.
The event, sponsored by Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac, is free and open to the public, however registration is required at www.ighm.org.
According to a press release, Duffney, using original correspondence, will outline the efforts the Society of Friends (aka Quakers) made on behalf of the starving Irish during the Great Hunger years of 1845-52.
“The personal vignettes found within their letters bring us closer to the perspective of the people in their place and time,” Duffney said.
“Political and social history, and maritime and postal history collided in unexpected ways.”
Duffney, who has traveled extensively in Ireland, oversees www.ctpostalhistory.com.
For several years he served as the editor of the “Connecticut Postal History Society Journal.”
He also is a member of the American Philatelic Society, U.S. Postal Classics Society, and the Boston Philatelic Group, among others.
Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac, 3011 Whitney Ave., is home to the world’s largest collection of visual art, artifacts and printed materials relating to the Irish Famine.
The museum preserves, builds and presents its art collection in order to stimulate reflection, inspire imagination and advance awareness of Ireland's Great Hunger and its long aftermath on both sides of the Atlantic.
The museum, which is currently closed while necessary improvements are being made to the building, is scheduled to reopen on Oct. 5.
