| The Famine Monument on the quayside at Cobh, | | | | space of a few years and millions were forced to |
| County Cork, delivers a solemn and heart | | | | emigrate to the "New World" from Cobh and |
| wrenching reminder of the greatest tragedy ever | | | | other ports on the southern Irish coast aboard |
| to befall the country of Ireland. From 1845 until | | | | "coffin ships", so called because so many died on |
| 1852, the "Great Hunger" claimed millions of lives | | | | the journey and were buried at sea. Those who |
| and resulted in millions more emigrating to | | | | did survive were registered at the famous Ellis |
| America, many from this quay, which was then | | | | Island processing centre in New York harbour, |
| called Queenstown in deference to the head of | | | | where today stands the Statue of Liberty and |
| the British nation, whose government and | | | | the neighbouring Ellis Island Memorial Centre. |
| absentee landlords were ultimately responsible for | | | | Because so many died and were buried at sea |
| the disaster. | | | | during the journey across the Atlantic together |
| One of the causes of the Famine was the failure | | | | with the deliberate destruction of records by the |
| of the potato crop due the arrival of a disease | | | | British authorities, it is not possible to estimate |
| known as "the blight" which rotted the potatoes. | | | | accurately how many died in one of the worlds |
| This had spread from Europe through Britain onto | | | | worst famines. Some experts put it as high as |
| Ireland. However, these countries did not suffer in | | | | five million. This was not alone a disaster; it was |
| any real sense of the word as the potato was | | | | also effectively one of the greatest acts of |
| effectively a "garden crop" grown in small | | | | genocide in history because of the inaction of the |
| quantities for occasional use. In Ireland however, | | | | British Government. |
| the potato was the stable diet of an oppressed | | | | This simple and evocative monument is worth |
| tenant farmer population forced to exist on tiny | | | | pausing at to take in the enormity of those |
| holdings as the absentee landlords grew lucrative | | | | horrible times and reflect on the capacity of man |
| grain crops for export to Britain. When the crops | | | | to harm fellow man. After all, this was only just |
| failed, there was simply no food. Millions died in the | | | | over 150 years ago. |