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Quinnipiac University’s Christine Kinealy receives $25,000 Grant
Quinnipiac University's Christine Kinealy, of Hamden, receives $25,000 grant from Irish government to create graphic novel
Quinnipiac University’s Christine Kinealy receives $25,000 grant from Irish government to create graphic novel about the relationship between Frederick Douglass and Daniel O'Connell
HAMDEN - Christine Kinealy, of Hamden, founding director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University, has received a $25,000 grant from the Irish government to create a graphic novel based on the relationship between human rights champions Frederick Douglass and Daniel O'Connell.
The project will be called, “Agitate. Agitate. Agitate! Daniel O'Connell & Frederick Douglass: International Champions of Human Rights.”
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In August 1845, Douglass, a 27-year-old American man designated by his government to be a fugitive slave, arrived in Dublin. Douglass had intended to stay in the city for four days, but the warmth of the welcome he received meant that he stayed in Ireland for four months. He described his time in the country as “transformative” and the “happiest time of his life.”
One of the places Douglass visited in Dublin was Conciliation Hall, the home of the movement to win independence from Britain. There he met Daniel O'Connell, an Irish nationalist and transatlantic abolitionist and a hero to Douglass and many other enslaved people.
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QU and Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute are excited to once again work with the Consulate General of Ireland through this generous grant.
“I am delighted to have an opportunity to bring this remarkable and inspiring story to a new generation of young adults through the medium of a graphic novel,” Kinealy said. “It explores issues that remain relevant today –– equality, inclusion, respect and diversity –– but also the lesson that whatever our origins, we can all be agents of change.”
Last year, Kinealy, author of the book, “Black Abolitionists in Ireland,” created a historical map that traced Frederick Douglass’ walking routes through Dublin and Belfast, Ireland. That project, “Frederick Douglass Way, Ireland,” was funded by a grant to the institute from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland and was created in conjunction with the African American Irish Diaspora Network, of which Kinealy is a director.
