In 2005 we established the Irish Famine Memorial Prize in the Department of Modern History, Macquarie University, where for many years Associate Professor Trevor McClaughlin taught and conducted his research on the Famine Orphan Immigrant women. It was through his initiative that the first outreach programme, in the form of this prize, was set up. It is awarded to a student whose ‘honours work on an Irish or Irish Australian topic or on a global problem in the modern world which might include famine, poverty, mass emigration, refugees or political upheaval’.
Subsequently, GIFCC established two Irish Memorial Funds [Mamre and University of Western Sydney] to commemorate the orphan girls who were refugees from the Great Irish Famine. The funds are directed to two outreach programmes which support women affected by famine and political pressures which caused them to flee their own countries. The public are invited to support these programmes by making a tax-deductible donation to the Funds thus ensuring that the programmes will continue to grow and expand into the future.
To donate click here >>
The committee’s objective is to keep the Monument alive by holding an annual commemoration day, maintaining a website and supporting these outreach programmes.
THE IRISH MEMORIAL FUND - MAMRE
supports a programme established by the Sisters of Mercy at Mamre Homestead, St Marys, NSW, to help African refugees, especially those from Southern Sudan. This programme comprises classes in commercial cookery, English language, social and life skills, women’s health, food, nutrition and child care. At present the GIFCC Mamre Fund is assisting a farming and fresh vegetable production enterprise at Mamre.
About Mamre: http://www.mamre.com.au
IRISH FAMINE MEMORIAL FUND - UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY
is an annual award to a female student at that university who arrived in Australia as a refugee and is committed to building a career and a life here. The committee donated the initial money to start a scholarship fund with the ultimate aim of building sufficient funds to create a full-time scholarship for a female refugee student at UWS.
IRISH FAMINE MEMORIAL PRIZE
2006 – Lauren Wilson, the first recipient, was presented with an illuminated manuscript and a cheque at the Irish Famine Memorial in March 2006 by visiting Irish Government Minister, Mr Brian Cowan, T.D. Lauren was an outstanding student who gained first class Honours and a university medal.
2007 – Julia Kensey’s Honours thesis explored the ways governments have tried to find solutions to the ‘Aboriginal problem’. Using the abolition of ATSIC as a case study, she argued that policy decisions must be seen against a wider, shifting backdrop of understandings of Australian history and Indigenous and Non-Indigenous experiences and relations. Julia went on to work as an Energy Analyst.
2008 – Eleanor Cameron Modern History Honours thesis was on the demise of the White Australia immigration policy between the 1950s and 1970s. Her examination showed, for example, how groups such as the Returned & Services League (RSL) and the Australian Natives Association gradually came to accept and at times, even embrace, the slow dismantlement of the policy. The prize was presented during ‘Irish week’ by a visiting Minister in the Irish Government, Mr Noel Dempsey TD, Minister for Transport. A beautiful wreath was laid by Mr Patrick Scullion, Irish Consul General in Sydney. The Irish Ambassador, Mr Máirtín Ó Fainín, and representatives from Macquarie University, Hyde Park Barracks and the Sydney GIFCC were in attendance.
