- TURY.CLUB
- Tourist Objects
- Ireland
- Dublin (city)
- The Hunger Memorial (Emigrants) in Dublin
One of the works of the world famous Irish sculptor Rowan Gilespie appeared on the Dublin promenade in 1997. Bronze sculpture group “Emigrants. Hunger ”serves as a reminder of one of the most tragic pages in the history of Ireland.
The Great Famine, also known as the Irish Potato Hunger, which was the result of the destructive economic policy of Great Britain towards Ireland and provoked by the late blight of the potato crop, occurred from 1845 to 1849. Potato, which came to Ireland at the end of the 16th century, very quickly became the main food and feed crop, because in the humid and mild climate of the island it yielded good harvests even on infertile soils. For the majority of poor Irish, and they accounted for almost 90 percent of the island’s population, it was potatoes of various kinds that formed the basis of the daily diet. That is why the consequences of the poor harvest of 1845 became so destructive. In addition to Ireland, potato disease spread to other European countries, but nowhere else did it cause such catastrophic consequences. In six hungry years, five thousand ships crossed the Atlantic. There were practically no conveniences for passengers: people were forced to huddle in terrible crowding, live starving for weeks in unsanitary conditions. Thousands of people, already weakened by hunger, fell ill during the trip. Many were dying. In 1847, ships bound for the shores of Canada were called "floating coffins." Of the 100,000 of their passengers, approximately 16,000 died en route or shortly after arriving at their destination. Although the settlers wrote to their relatives and friends who remained in Ireland about all the hardships of their journey and life in developing America, the flow of emigrants did not decrease. During the years of famine, one and a half million people left Ireland, as many died from hunger, the country's population decreased by a third.
However, the story reflected in the sculptural group of Emigrants tells of a hope that keeps people in even the most desperate and hopeless situations, and the location of the sculptures was not accidentally chosen. It was from here on St. Patrick's Day in 1846 that one of the first ships sailing with emigrants sailed. Captain William Scott, who crossed the Atlantic many times, quit his job in an office in New Brunswick and, at 74, set off on this difficult journey, saving people. They sailed to New York on May 18, 1846, and all passengers survived this journey. In June 2007, the second series of Rowan Gillespie sculptures dedicated to the Great Famine was opened by President Mary MacAulis on the promenade of the Toronto Irish Park in memory of immigrants who arrived in Canada.
