In spring 1984, on her third trip to Ireland, Rosalie "Rose" Rowan-Kuzma, Girardville, sat on a hillside near Blacksod Bay, dug her fingers into the sandy earth and discovered an artifact of one of history's great tragedies.
"I uncovered the top of a human skull," Rowan-Kuzma, 66, said Tuesday, while setting up an exhibit dedicated to Irish history at the Schuylkill County Historical Society in Pottsville.
It was a victim of "An Gorta Mor," Gaelic for "The Great Hunger," a famine during which an estimated 1.5 million Irish men, women and children died of starvation or related diseases between 1845 and 1850. It's the worst chapter in the country's history, and arguably, the single worst catastrophe in 19th century Europe, according to www.thegreathunger.org.
Rowan-Kuzma has a collection of more than 150 items related to Irish history that will be on display at the society's headquarters at 305 N. Centre St. until the end of April, according to society President David Derbes.
Among them is a collection of sculptures made by Rowan-Kuzma that resemble the hunger victims. They occupy two glass cases in the society's first floor hallway. Between them is a human-sized prop skeleton laid out on a table covered with sand and small rocks.
"Along the shore, there are dunes, big sand banks. During the famine, I guess they were half dead themselves, they couldn't dig graves. But in the sand, they could dig something out. They all just came and kept putting them in on top of one another. If you excavated that, you'd find mass graves today. They're still there," Rowan-Kuzma said of Blacksod Bay.
That fateful trip encouraged her to dedicate her life to promoting Irish history and educating others about its colorful traditions and heritage as well as its darkest chapters.
"When I had my hand atop that head, I felt that something sort of passed through. I felt as if these people wanted me to tell their story. So when I came home from that trip, that's when I started on these sculptures," Rowan-Kuzma said.
A Shenandoah native, her grandparents were Irish immigrants. Over the years, she has made seven trips to Ireland to explore her roots, and she's made figurines, costumes and displays to educate others about them.
She has displayed her collection at events she coordinated with local organizations including the Girardville Historical Society and The Friends of St. Kieran's in Heckscherville.
This is the first time she has displayed her collection at the Schuylkill County Historical Society.
"We're planning a series of events. Rose will make herself available on certain nights to give a walking tour through the whole exhibit. And we're working to have Irish dancers perform here sometime in March," Derbes said.
Catherine C. Clifford, president of the Friends of St. Kieran's, helped Rowan-Kuzma transport the collection from Girardville to Pottsville.
"I think we made six trips," Rowan-Kuzma said.
This week, Rowan-Kuzma was setting up most of the collection at the Schuylkill County Meeting House, which is the meeting room on the first floor of the society's headquarters.
The items included two human-sized figures dressed to celebrate Wren's Day. The ancient tradition, held on Dec. 26, involved crowds who would hunt a wren, kill it, put it atop a decorated pole and parade through villages.
"Those are wrenboys," Rowan-Kuzma said.
One is wearing a mask which resembles "The Sacred Bull of Cooley," Rowan-Kuzma said.
According to an Irish legend, Queen Maeve of Connacht set out to capture the bull, also known as "the Brown Bull of Cooley," to prove to her husband that she was the richest person in Ireland, according to the website for INIS Publications at www.inispublications.com.
"She wanted a better bull than the one her husband had," Rowan-Kuzma said.
The other figure is wearing a mask which looks like an oak tree, she said.
Her exhibit includes a series of sculptures which tell the story of "Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake," a song composed by Charles Frank Horn in Middleport, Pennsylvania, and published in 1883.
The song has become part of the folklore of Christmas. "Coming from a background of nineteenth-century Irish humor, it is a lighthearted contribution to the more serious Christmas musical offerings," according to the website for The New York Folklore Society at www.nyfolklore.org.
There are also sculptures of Annie Moore, the first of all immigrants registered at Ellis Island when it officially opened on Jan. 1, 1892, and a collection of figures which tell the story of "The Day of the Rope." This story describes June 21, 1877, when 10 Irish coal miners, who were allegedly part of a group of terrorists known as the Molly Maguires, were hanged, six of them in Pottsville and four in what is now Jim Thorpe.