Murrisk, Co Mayo

The Irish view

The photograph shows the National Famine Memorial ("Coffin Ship") in Murrisk, Co Mayo, commissioned by the Irish Government and created by the Dublin artist, John Behan. It was unveiled in 1996 by the then Irish president, Mrs Mary Robinson. In addition to this, there are at least another seven memorials in Ireland, at Carr's Hill, Cork, two in Dublin, Doolough and Swinford in Mayo, Ennistymon in Clare, and Ballingarry in Co Tipperaray. Most of these were commissioned by, or had support from the Irish Government, although the non-governmental Afri (Action from Ireland) and Irish Famine Commemoration Fund played important roles in some.

In the diaspora too, there are memorials to the Irish dead at Grosse Īle, as the article on the quarantine station describes, and in Boston, Ardsley, NY, and Liverpool. Despite the Highland dead at Grosse Īle there is no Scottish equivalent.

The years of famine in the 1840s brought as much death to, and forced as much emigration from, Scotland. It says much about the political maturity of the two nations that Scotland's physical memorials to the Clearances and to the Famine are to those who did so much to cause these events and who sought to profit from them, best exemplified by the statue to the Duke of Sutherland.