About Our Story
Ireland and Malawi are separated by around 8,000 kilometres as the swallow flies (the swallow is known as “welu welu” in Tombuka). Though seemingly disparate, the stories of these two countries are interwoven by the long threads of human movement, cultural exchange, a shared colonial experience and, more recently, renewed efforts to bind the countries together through collaboration and learning.
Billy Riordan
Our connection with Malawi began with a young Archaeologist called Billy Riordan from Corca Dhuibhne, West Kerry, Ireland.
Joe Gallagher and his wife Colette had previously worked in a clinic founded in memory of Billy by his mother Mags, after Billy had tragically drowned at the Lakeshore, Cape Maclear in 1999.
Fifteen years later, Joe persuaded Chris Watson, Mark Ledwidge as well as his friends and colleagues in Gorey, Wexford, to return each year to help improve healthcare in Malawi, forming the Gorey Malawi Health Partnership.
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Deep Connections
We learned of deeper connections in Malawi at Mount Hora, near lake Malawi, close to our healthcare and education projects.
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Rock shelters in Mount Hora have provided some of the oldest samples of ancient human DNA on the African continent. In a study based on ancient and modern African DNA, including from Mount Hora, Lipson and colleagues showed that modern humans initially split into three distinct genetic groups very early in their evolutionary history in Africa.
They diverged over 200,000 years ago in the eastern, central, and southern regions.
This work also suggests that non-African populations are most closely related to the eastern African forager group.*
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*Lipson M et al. Nature. 2022;603(7900):290-296. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04430-9.
Mount Hora, March 2025
Where are you from?
In their 2017 trip to Livingstonia, Malawi, Joe and Mark met an elderly, retired Malawian teacher. He had worked in the secondary school which was founded in memory of the explorer David Livingstone. His grandfather brought the Livingstonia mission from Cape Maclear to the Khondwe plateau, in East Africa’s Rift Valley. When Joe said that we are from Ireland, he replied “No, you are from here”.​​
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The ancestors of all modern humans are believed to have emerged “Out of Africa” over 60,000 years ago, near where we work along the Rift Valley of East Africa. Irish mythology also traces the origin story of Cessair, the first person to settle in Ireland, to the East African Rift Valley.
It is said that Cessair first landed on the Island of Ireland at Corcha Dhuibhne in West Kerry. Young archaeologists Micháel O’Coilleán and Billy Riordan were part of the original team that found the first evidence of neolithic farming in Ireland, at Ferriter’s Cove in Corca Duibhne on the Dingle Peninsula.
Inis Thuisceart seen from Ferriter' Cove, Corca Dhuibhne 2025