Dublin’s Great Irish Famine Memorial at Custom House Quay

June 25, 2014

During the Great Irish Famine of 1845 to 1851 a blight destroyed Ireland’s potato crop, the main staple food for the country’s impoverished agricultural laborers and tenant farmers.

One million Irish died from starvation and related diseases during the famine, and another one and a half to two million emigrated. Anger over the famine and the British government’s response to it contributed to the rise of the Irish land reform and independence movements in Ireland and the United States in the late nineteenth century.

Remembering the People of the Great Famine

In the 1990’s, during the one hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the famine, memorials to its victims were erected in Ireland and in Irish communities throughout the world.

Sculptor Rowan Gillespie‘s “Famine”, a bronze installation of six emaciated human figures and a dog, was unveiled in 1997 on Dublin’s Custom House Quay. It portrays famine victims walking to the port of Dublin to leave for new lives abroad.

Images

Murphy, William. “Custom House Famine Memorial.” Photographic series of Rowan Gillespie’s bronze sculpture “Famine” in Dublin, Ireland taken on March 22, 2011 and June 4th, 2007. https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/5552996454/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/530364048/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/530470019 (accessed June 25th, 2014).

Used under a CC attribution license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 (accessed 25th June 2014). Please note that the photo of the full installation was cropped with permission from this license.

References

Donnelly, Jim. “The Irish Famine.” Bbc.co.uk. From the BBC: History: British History. Last updated 17 February 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtml (accessed 25 June 2014)

Mark-Fitzgerald, Emily. “Irish Famine Memorials: Dublin, Co. Dublin.” Irishfaminememorials.com. January 2014. http://irishfaminememorials.com/2014/01/16/dublin-co-dublin-1997 (accessed 25 June 2014) Note: This reference is the source for the quote from the Irish Quarterly Review of 1854.

Moody, T.W. and F.X. Martin, Editors. The Course of Irish History. Dublin: The Mercier Press, 1993. Print.