Thousands to tour famine ship

The ship is a replice of a 19th century famine ship

Thousands of visitors are expected to visit the Jeanie Johnston, a replica 'famine' ship which has arrived in Belfast on a four-day visit.

The ship tells the story of the Great Famine which swept Ireland in the middle of the 19th century.

The original Jeannie Johnston made its maiden voyage to Quebec in Canada on 24 April 1848, with 193 emigrants on board.

From 1848 to 1855, the ship carried over 2,500 Irish people across the Atlantic as the mass exodus from Ireland continued.

The ship will re-enact its predecessor's voyage to America next month

Complete with on-board museum, the replica vessel was built in County Kerry as one of the Irish Republic's Millennium projects.

A crew of 40, including four Belfast teenagers, sailed the ship from Dublin to its berth at Queen's Quay on Friday.

Young people from nationalist and unionist backgrounds in Northern Ireland also helped with the construction of the three masted vessel, which features, below decks, a mock-up of what it was like for emigrants making the perilous journey from Ireland to North America in the mid 1800s.

The visit is part of a tour of Irish ports before the Jeanie Johnston heads off to the United States next month to recreate one of the epic voyages of its namesake.

History

The Jeanie Johnston was the only emigrant 'famine' ship never to lose the life of a passenger during its voyages.

The vessel has been created as a sail training vessel and a floating museum of the famine era in Ireland.

Belfast Lord Mayor Alex Maskey welcomed the ship with its captain Tom McCarthy to Belfast.

"I hope many people from Belfast and beyond will avail of the wonderful opportunity to visit this sailing ship and see the sort of vessel which might well have carried their ancestors to America," he said.

"It is a chance to see a working vessel and feel the conditions under which people travelled in the past."