Routes of remembrance

This week Dr Padraig Kirwan will travel to Oklahoma to join the Choctaw Nation’s annual commemorative cycle to remember the Choctaw’s removal from their ancestral lands during the Trail of Tears. As the first Irish riders to join the team, Dr Kirwan’s and Andrew Castles’ participation in the long distance cycle adds a new chapter to the long history of Irish and Choctaw acts of remembrance and solidarity epitomised by the Choctaw Gift of 1847, in which citizens of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma donated $172 to the starving in Ireland during An Gorta Mór, the Great Irish Famine. The riders will undertake a gruelling journey from Mississippi in the south-east, travelling through the state to Arkansas and finally onto the present-day home of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, who, despite this history of hardship and displacement, have made a prosperous and thriving centre in Durant, Oklahoma today. 

The route covers almost 500 miles and will take the team approximately 7 days to complete. Whilst the annual cycle is a challenging physical prospect, others in the Choctaw Nation and beyond (including Prof. Gillian O’Brien and Dr Shelley Angelie Saggar) are commemorating the journey on foot through a route that can be completed virtually. 

The signing of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which legalised the relocation of tribes to lands west of the Mississippi, and the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek which was signed by the Choctaw in the same year, eventually led to the loss of much of the new lands that had been promised under the terms of the treaty. Almost 200 years on, remembering the route taken by so many Choctaw citizens offers a powerful form of resistance to the supposed completion of Removal. Walking and riding these routes is an act of remembrance that can better inform participants about Choctaw histories and lived realities through the embodiment of this chapter in Choctaw history. As part of continuing the relationship between the people of Ireland and the Choctaw Nation, Dr Kirwan is raising money to honour the historic gift that the tribe sent to Ireland and ensure that future commemorative cycles will continue. You can read more about his fundraising efforts here.

We wish Padraig, Andrew, and the rest of the 2025 Bike Team good luck as they set out on their commemorative journey. You can follow their trip on our social channels.