Irish support for Native American Covid-19 relief highlights historic bond
- GoFundMe page for Navajo and Hopi aid lists many Irish names
- Choctaw Nation sent donation in 1847 for potato famine victims
The list of recent donors reads like an Irish phone book. Aisling Ní Chuimín, Shane Ó Leary, Sean Gibbons, Kevin Boyle, Kevin Keane, Clare Quinn, Eamonn McDonald, on and on down a GoFundMe page that by Friday had raised $3.15m of a $5m goal.
The individual amounts are not remarkable – $10, $20, $30, some exceeding $100 – but the story behind the donations stretches back two centuries and encompasses a singular act of generosity that forged a bond between Native Americans and Ireland, a bond now renewed in the coronavirus era.
Related: Navajo Nation reels under weight of coronavirus – and history of broken promises
