Argyll Youth Theatre
THE HIGHLAND FAMINE
Sat 24th April, 7.30pm
Set in the Ross of Mull between 1840 and 1851, this play is about the Great Famine in the West Highlands and Islands caused by the failure of the potato crop on which many families depended for their main source of food. In Ireland more than a million poor people died, leaving a lasting resentment against the British government.
In Scotland a remarkable fund-raising effort, similar to Band Aid, provided meals to the starving Highlanders and prevented a repetition of the Irish catastrophe. As arrears of rent escalated and the fund ran out many landlords sought to evict their people and force them to emigrate. The Ross of Mull lost a third of its population through emigration, disease and eviction. This is the story of a family in the township of Shiaba which, in 1841, held more than a hundred people and now stands empty and derelict.
Tickets: £4