The Irish National Famine Memorial depicting mass emigration during the Great Famine (1845-50), can be seen in Murrisk Millennium Park directly opposite the entrance to Croagh Patrick, west of Westport in County Mayo, in the west of Ireland. It was commissioned by the Irish Government to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Great Irish Famine and remember the millions who died and emigrated during that dreadful period. The bronze sculpture with a three-masted sailing-ship and numerous emaciated skeletons by Dublin-born, Galway-based, artist John Behan depicts people with skeleton bodies fleeing from the country in an overcrowded ‘coffin ship’ in search of new lives in another country. The ribs of the ship are designed to represent lazybeds, ridges of rotten potatoes which remained undug on the Irish landscape after the catastrophe. The memorial, which is over 9m long and the largest sculpture in the country, was erected by Mayo County Council, Westport Historical Society and the local community in Murrisk. It is situated on a panoramic site overlooking Clew Bay, made available by James Fair in honour of his parents. The sculpture was unveiled on 20 July 1997 by President Mary Robinson.
There was a succession of regional famines, especially in the West of Ireland, culminating in the Great Famine. People died and emigrated in their thousands. It is estimated that at least one million people died from starvation in Ireland during the Great Famine and that a similar number went into exile. The population of Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was recorded at 8,175,124 in 1841 (and that figure would have been much higher by 1847), and 6,552,385 at the next census in 1851. The population of County Mayo fell by 29.41 per cent from 388,887 in 1841 to 274,499 in 1851, with thousands dying from starvation and a similar number emigrating. As one of the worst counties affected, it is appropriate that the Irish National Famine Memorial is located there.
Emigration was sometimes promoted, with some emigrants receiving subsidies from landlords, but the majority were helped by family members who had already gone into exile. A transatlantic voyage at that time took from four to six weeks, depending on the quality of the sailing ships, and many of them were in a terrible condition. After leaving their precarious existence at home, many in a state of utter destitution, some emigrants did not survive the horrors of the transatlantic journey; instead, they succumbed to illness, aggravated by sea-sickness, poor ventilation and lack of sanitation. The physical hardships endured by those emigrants were compounded by the knowledge that they were unlikely ever to see their families or their native land again. They were all impoverished, uneducated, unskilled, and thus ill-equipped to deal with the numerous challenges which lay ahead. These were the experiences depicted by John Behan in his brilliant sculpture.
Another related sculpture by John Behan, The Arrival, showing passengers emerging from a ship, was unveiled in 2001 beside the East River, in front of the United Nations building in New York. It depicts over 100 people in bronze arriving in New York harbour, some descending the gunwales of the ship, with an air of hope for a better future in the United States. It was a gift from Ireland to the United Nations in appreciation of its work for famine victims around the world.
Note: Bernard O’Hara’s most recent book is Exploring Mayo can be obtained by contacting www.mayobooks.ie
Bernard O'Hara's book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble
It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).
An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).