Holocausd na nGaedheal

Ireland's Holocaust mural on the Ballymurphy Road, Belfast. Britain's genocide by starvation, Ireland's holocaust 1845--1849 .

The Memorial at the Harbour

The statue below is a memorial in bronze, erected at Sligo Harbour in 1997 to mark the 150th anniversery of the Irish Holocaust . The family are shown comforting one another, and the child points to the New Land to which they will sail. More than 30,000 people left Sligo for new lives abroad between the years 1847 and 1851. This sculpture is one of three commissioned by the Sligo Commemoration Committee.

In the background, a plaque displays a 'Letter to America, January 2, 1850'. Owen Larkin did not know, when he wrote the letter, that his son was already dead.

I am now I may say alone in the world all my brothers and sisters are dead and children but yourself... We are all ejected out of Mr. Enright's ground the times was so bad and all Ireland in such a state of poverty that no person could pay rent. My only hope now rests with you, as I am without one shilling and as I said before I must either beg or go to the poorhouse... I remain your affectionate father Owen Larkin be sure answer this by return of post.

Coothill, Co. Cavan, Ireland

Irish Holocaust monument marking a large burial mound is located in Coothill, Co. Cavan.

The plaque reads: "In memory of the large unknown number of people buried here 1842 - 1903. May they rest in peace"

Killary Harbor, Co. Galway, Ireland

Irish holocaust route taken what is known as "Famine road" and is located above Killary Harbor. The road is overgrown now but you can still see the retaining walls built by starving locals during the famine. The road wasn't needed at the time but English landowners would only feed the locals if they worked on the road. If they didn't they weren't fed.

A Polish nobleman who helped 200,000 Irish children survive the Irish Holocaust

Count Paul Edmund Strzelecki arrived in Co Mayo in 1847 to spearhead a charity's efforts to save the poor from starvation.

"No pen can describe the distress by which I am surrounded," he wrote in Westport in March that year.

He succeeded in saving huge numbers of children by devising methods of feeding them in their schools in badly hit regions across Ireland.
Born near Poznan in Poland in 1797, he became a well-known scientist and explorer, travelling the world and mapping different regions of Australia and Tasmania. He criticised the British government's treatment of the Aborigine population who lost their lands and were suffering great hardship.

He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's gold medal in 1845 and became a naturalised British subject.

He was deeply moved by the emerging famine catastrophe in Ireland following the potato blight. The Society of Friends - better known as the Quakers - were among the first to publicise the mass deaths from late 1846.

Strzelecki volunteered to do unpaid relief work for the charity in Ireland and he was appointed to oversee the charity's work in Co Donegal, Co Mayo and Co Sligo.He was shocked by the conditions he saw. The suffering was so widespread he wrote to the association in London stating: "It has reached such a degree of lamentable extremes that it becomes above the power of exaggeration and misrepresentation."

He set up soup kitchens and feeding programmes in Westport and in many remote areas. By July, some three million people had received food relief in the worst parts of Ireland.His idea of feeding the children of suffering families in schools, mostly with rye bread, was extended to many parts of Ireland. By March 1848, almost 200,000 children in the west were benefiting from the school meal programme which saved many young lives.

The Coolmountain Soup Pot, Ballingeary, County Cork

This large, cast iron, pot was used to make soup for starving families during the Irish Holocaust 1847-51. It was provided by a resident of Coolmountain House, a few miles away in this parish. It was discovered this century, by the local historical society, in use as an outdoor hot-tub. It was donated to the Society, a plinth and shelter was erected in Ballingeary where it is on display.