Analysis: From the Famine to Fair City, it's clear that the relationship between the Irish and the Choctaw Nations is being actively maintained
This week, Fair City celebrated the 85th – well, actually 86th – birthday of Cass Cassidy (Eamon Morrissey). Plans to send him to Oklahoma to visit his friends in the Choctaw Nation were shelved when he decided he was too old to travel. Instead, his grandson Sean (Ryan Andrews) arranged a special surprise: the return of Waylon Gary White Deer, a member of the Choctaw Nation, to Fair City for the first time since 2013.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Ray D'Arcy Show, Choctaw artist Waylon Gary White Deer talks about his return to Fair City and the history of charity and support between the Choctaw and the Irish
In the episode, the deep-rooted connection between Ireland and the Choctaw Nation was revisited. The relationship dates back to 1847 when the Choctaw people, despite facing their own hardships after the Trail of Tears forced displacement, donated $172 to Irish famine relief. The bond was reaffirmed during the Covid-19 pandemic when Irish people donated over $2 million to aid the Navajo and Hopi Tribes.
The tribe’s donation was dispatched soon after Choctaw Removal to Indian Territory in the mid-1830s which had caused huge distress, suffering and land loss. In Ireland many had also experienced hardship caused by colonial expansion. However, it is also the case that many Irish born migrants and Irish-America settlers – president Andrew Jackson amongst them – would go on to play a large part in expansionist U.S. policies during the 1830s and beyond.
The shared histories of Indigenous and Irish experiences of colonisation include land displacement, cultural and linguistic erasure and forced migration as a result of colonial policies are indicative of the ways in which imperial strategies have global repercussions. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act paved the way for the forced migration of first the Choctaw, then the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee Creek and Seminole Tribes on the Trail of Tears.
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From RTÉ Doc On One, Trail of Tears - The Choctaw March retraces the footsteps of the Choctaw people who were forcibly driven from their homelands in Mississippi and trekked 500 miles on a journey that was to be known as the Trail of Tears (first broadcast 1992)
It was a move which saw tribes pushed westwards to make way for European settlers. While many Irish also faced land dispossession, it was not on the scale suffered by American Indian tribes. Indeed, many Irish immigrants later settled on lands that that was rightfully Choctaw.
Since the 1990s, the Ireland-Choctaw relationship has gained greater recognition. In 1995, President Mary Robinson visited the Choctaw Tribal Complex in Durant, Oklahoma, where she acknowledged the enduring significance of the Choctaw’s generosity: 'For Irish people in the generations since the Famine, this wonderful donation, and the enormous generosity of the Choctaw people, has been an important part of our folk memory. This gift, so much from those who could afford so little, has given the Choctaw people a unique and cherished place in Irish history, and in the imagination and hearts of our people.’
In 2017, President Michael D. Higgins welcomed Chief Gary Batton to Áras an Uachtaráin, and Batton later attended the unveiling of Kindred Spirits in Midleton, a sculpture by Alex Pentek honouring the Choctaw gift. Further strengthening these ties, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited Durant in 2018, and in 2024, Minister of State Thomas Byrne unveiled Eternal Heart, a sculpture outside the Choctaw Nation Council House in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma.
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From RTÉ News, Choctaw Nation unveils 'eternal' sculpture dedicated to Ireland
At the unveiling of Eternal Heart, Chief Batton noted "we are grateful for the giving hearts of our Choctaw ancestors that brought us here today. We are excited to see what this eternal bond will bring to future generations of Choctaw and Irish, and we are extremely proud to call the people of Ireland our friends and kindred spirits." The ongoing diplomatic links between the Irish nation and the Choctaw Nation are important acknowledgements of nationhood, sovereignty and mutual respect.
The ‘Sharing Lands’ project, led by Dr. Pádraig Kirwan (Goldsmiths, University of London), Prof. LeAnne Howe (University of Georgia and enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation), Prof. Gillian O'Brien (Liverpool John Moores University) and Dr. Shelley Saggar (Goldsmiths, University of London), explores the evolving legacy of this historic relationship. Alongside our Choctaw colleagues, we are examining the understudied historic dimensions and contemporary legacies of the compelling relationship between the Irish and the Choctaw Nations. It is apparent that the relationship that began in March 1847 in Skullyville is being actively maintained. This can be seen in the Chahta Foundation’s scholarship programme which offers annual grants for Choctaw scholars to study for an Masters at UCC.
The ongoing engagement between the Irish and the Choctaw was also very apparent during a recent trip to Oklahoma where the Sharing Lands team visited the Capitol Museum in Tuskahoma and the Choctaw Cultural Center in Calera with its superb exhibitions dedicated to exploring, preserving, and showcasing the culture and history of the Choctaw people. We met with Choctaw historians, curators artists and culture keepers alongside Choctaw elders, members of the Tribal Council, the Chata Foundation and the Trail of Tears bike ride team.
It was abundantly clear that a relationship that began as a small ripple across the Atlantic Ocean in 1847 has thrived despite contradictions, complexities and challenges. One action inspired by the Choctaw concepts of ‘iyyikowa’ (serving those in need) and ‘ima’ (giving) in 1847 set the stage for future relationships that stretch from Choctaw lands to Ireland, Carrigstown and beyond.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
