Famine Memorial

Situated on Custom House Quay in the Docklands, the statues are the work of Dublin sculptor, Rowan Gillespie. They were unveiled in 1997.

The sculpture commemorates the victims of the Great Famine which plagued Ireland from 1845 until 1849. Although, there were in fact several periods of famine and that lasted into the early 1850s.

Started by the potato blight, a disease that made the crops failed, and made worse by the authorities inability to deal with the problem early enough, it caused at least one million deaths and forced more than a million people to emigrate, some not surviving the sea crossings. Overall, Ireland lost 20% of its population.

It seems that the sculptor wished for as many names as possible to be inscribed below the feet of the figures. This “sea of names” includes many prominent Irish personalities and their families, representing I suppose survival, revival and, in my opinion, resilience. I don’t know why there are not more names, but it is part of a project raising funds for the homeless of nowadays.

One of the first sailings left from this quay for Canada on board Perseverance, on St Patrick’s Day 1846. There is another series of statues by Rowan Gillespie on the quayside in Toronto.

Next post: 

the World Poverty Stone and 

Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship (famine story) 

which is moored near EPIC Ireland: The Emigration Museum
http://picturesofdubhlinn.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/poverty-stone-jeanie-johnston-ship.html