It amounts to what is probably the longest “thank-you” note in Irish history.
The pre-Famine Morpeth Roll contains the signatures of some 275,000 Irish people who sent an extravagant testimonial to the departing chief secretary of Ireland, George Howard or Lord Morpeth, in 1841.
If rolled out, the 412m long scroll would cover nearly the length of O’Connell Street. Indeed, its most famous signatory is Daniel O’Connell.
The scroll will be the subject of a conference in NUI Maynooth today The Gathering: Local History, Heritage and Diaspora. It will go on a public tour in February and is being digitised by Ancestry.com.
