The Famine Memorial — Attraction in Dublin

As I stood on Custom House Quay in Dublin, the Famine Memorial hit me like a punch to the gut. Rowan Gillespie’s bronze statues—skeletal figures draped in tattered rags, clutching meager belongings, some with children in their arms—felt so lifelike, it was as if the ghosts of the Great Hunger had risen from the Liffey’s edge. Their hollow eyes and gaunt faces screamed despair, frozen in a desperate march toward the emigration ships. It’s haunting, almost too real, and it churned something deep inside me. This wasn’t just a tribute to a potato blight; it was a raw, unflinching reminder of the callousness that turned a crop failure into a catastrophe.

The Great Hunger of 1845–1852 wasn’t just nature’s cruelty—it was an artificial famine, made worse by British policies that bled Ireland dry. While the potato crops rotted, Ireland was forced to export grain, butter, and livestock to England under armed guard, as if our starvation was just business as usual. Over a million died, another million fled, and the population plummeted, all while ships loaded with food sailed from our ports. The statues capture that betrayal, that wrenching loss, with every emaciated limb and bowed head. It’s not just sad—it’s a wound that still stings, a reminder of resilience forged in the face of...

Very moving Memorial to the victims of An Gorta Mor/The Great Hunger or British Genocide in Ireland. It is little known as such, but when you consider that the British establishment took enough food out of Ireland to feed it x3 times over, then it begs the question exactly what else was it. They starved the people and the potato blight that happened wasn't the only means of feeding the natives. The British sent a man over to oversee named - Trevelyan. He would write that it was 'Gods will' and that they needed such 'de-population'. Such was the horror of the time, the English landlords evicted thousands from their homes and people would wander the streets and roads looking to feed themselves and their families. These statues show that horror, engrained into their faces of hopelessness. A must visit when in Dublin, just past the Customs House along the cities...

Rowan Gillespie's haunting famine memorial statues touch the viewers very soul. These ghostlike figures shuffle towards Dublin Quay desperately seeking escape from Ireland's apocalyptical famine. Every piece is a study in pain, anguish and humans devoid of hope. You simply cannot look at these and feel nothing. Hardest of all to take is the fact they are our ancestors, which makes us survivors. Looking at the thriving modern city around these gaunt ghosts, maybe that is a fitting setting to human endurance. 170 odd years later, Ireland has survived, we are at peace, we are of course imperfect, but we are free, we have forgiven but we will...