“The boat now is still in Ireland. It’s in Dublin, and you can go tour. It’s like fourteen bucks to go to it. It’s a museum now,” said Upper School English teacher Mrs. DiDonato, looking back on her time spent in Ireland as a nineteen-year-old girl, building a boat to bring peace to the UK.
Ms. DiDonato was only nineteen when her uncle sent her to Ireland to make peace between the Irish and the British. To him, recreating the Jeanie Johnston cargo ship seemed to be the only way.
In the 1950s and 60s, the tension between the British and Irish was very high. Ms. D’s grandparents and parents had to immigrate to America to prevent their children from being shipped off to war. In 1998, a treaty called The Good Friday Agreement was signed, which was supposed to end the wars between the two European countries. Unfortunately, it did not work as well as the political parties hoped. To help the cause, Ms. D’s uncle, who was involved in Irish clubs, sent her to Ireland with a few family members and carpenters, one of them being the father of her future children, to rebuild an old cargo ship called the Jeanie Johnston to hopefully settle tensions. This original cargo ship was the only ship that no one died on when coming to America. So naturally, this ship was the one to rebuild. Ms. D shared that she was the one to give tours of the ship and hose down the wood so it could be molded.
This summer marked the 25th year anniversary of the replica ship being built. The original group met up in the same place before they left, to recreate their iconic picture. She brought her children over this summer to show them the amazing work she did. They stayed in the same town it was built, Tralee, and the same college dorms they did 25 years ago. Her kids only saw a drive by of the ship, not being able to take in its full glory. More recently in October, her tenth grade daughter, Scarlett, went back with her dad for the full tour and realized how astonishing the ship was. “The Jeanie Johnston was the only famine ship where no one died, it was rightfully called a miracle ship,” says Scarlett, “It’s incredible that even though it wasn’t the original Jeanie Johnston, my parents met on a replica and were able to start our family. That feels like a miracle to me.”
“This trip solidified my family, meeting the father of my children and spending time with cousins and sister. To this day they are still my best friends,” said Ms. D, as she reminisced on what this trip brought to her.
