Origins

How the Irish Famine Monument Came To Be

The beginning

President Mary Robinson enthralled all who came to hear her during her visit to Sydney in 1995. During this visit she called on the Irish community to mark the memory of the Great Famine (1845-1848) in some special way. At this time there were many active Irish county organizations in Sydney all doing their own thing and loosely co-ordinated by a body called The Irish Communication Council headed by Martin Coleman. In November 1995 a meeting of all the county associations was called and the wishes of President Robinson were outlined. A meeting was scheduled for February 1996 at which a sub-committee of the Communications Council would be elected and ideas discussed as to what form the “commemoration” would take. Tom Power was eventually elected as Chairman assisted by Ian Caruth as Vice-Chairman and Terrie Pollard as Secretary.

Bringing ideas to fruition

During subsequent meetings many ideas were put before the committee. One such idea was a large rock to be placed at North Head with a plaque commemorating all the victims of the Great Irish Famine. Cost wise this would have been a simple project but many felt that other ideas required exploration. A figurative memorial was suggested at a cost of $35,000. Six artists of renown were contacted and in due course they presented their maquettes to the committee. At this stage not much thought went into the selection of a site although Hyde Park Barracks, a property in the care of the Historic Houses Trust (HHT) of New South Wales was always considered to be the most appropriate due to the connection of a group of Irish Female Orphans who were accommodated there between 1848 and 1851. The Hyde Park Barracks is often been referred to as  the birthplace of the Irish/Australian relationship having accommodated  many Irish ‘convicts’ prior to it becoming a refuge for the Irish Famine orphans in 1848. Hyde Park Barracks itself is something of an icon in Sydney described as a neo-classical building designed by a famous convict architect, Francis Greenway, during the period when Lachlan Macquarie was Governor of the colony of New South Wales (NSW).

Meeting with the Trustees

In June 1996 the Trustees of the HHT met with the Committee to discuss our proposal to erect a sculpture at the Hyde Park Barracks. The Trustees were presented with the maquettes but they were not prepared to approve any of the proposals. They agreed to work with the Committee to develop a brief for a sculpture at the site and fund a limited competition amongst “recognized and acclaimed” artists. The draft brief was presented to the Trustees at a February 1997 meeting. It was accepted in broad terms and it was agreed that a Steering Committee should be formed to manage the project. This Committee was later known as the Sculpture Committee whose members were:

The brief

The brief was developed and two possible locations for the sculpture were suggested. One location was the forecourt of the Hyde Park Barracks and the second was the southern wall. However due to outside influences and a number of irate phone calls the forecourt location was abandoned. It would appear that the sight of a famine orphan would be too confronting, in the minds of many, as Queen Victoria’s statue is situated on the opposite side of the forecourt. At the March 1997 meeting of the Sculpture Committee it was agreed that the southern wall would be a more appropriate location.

The Lord Mayor

On 27 June 1997 the Lord Mayor, Councillor Frank Sartor, wrote encouragingly of the project and suggested that artists be invited to respond to both locations. However he pointed out that ‘given the heritage aspect of the precinct and the strong spatial geometry of the square’ the forecourt could be too constraining for the artist. He also requested a senior Council employee to be co-opted on the committee. Two senior Council employees attended the July meeting where it was decided that the artists would be invited to respond only to the southern wall site much against the wishes of Tom Power and Martin Coleman who were the Irish Famine Monument representatives on the Sculpture Committee.

Selecting the Artist

The Commission was advertised in The Australian newspaper on 30 August and 6 September and during the next two months 41 tenders were received from various parts of the world, including Ireland, UK, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and all the States and Territories of the Commonwealth of Australia. Five artists were selected and asked to further develop their proposals. The budget by this time had risen to $200,000 and with this sum of money in mind each artist was asked to produce a maquette/model. For this each artist was paid $1000.

Hossein & Angela Valamanesh

On 4 December 1997 the Sculpture Committee met to assess the finalists and unanimously selected the Valamanesh proposal as the one that filled all the aims of the brief. The Valamaneshes met the Sculpture Committee on 12 January 1998 and it was agreed that the project would proceed in two stages. The second stage would not commence until all approvals were in place and sufficient funds were available to underwrite all expenditure. As funds were not forthcoming a meeting was facilitated by Mr Peter Nagle, Member of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, at Parliament House which was attended by a number of eminent persons from the Irish Community. (Prominent at that meeting were Messrs Fergus Doyle, Frank O’Connell, Steve Carey, and Michael Daly. They agreed that the project should go ahead and that they were prepared to underwrite any shortfall in funds should this be necessary.  Fortunately some very large donations were received over the next 12 months which allowed work to commence.

Final costings

In June 1998 the Valamaneshes presented a final costing of $279.000. (Taking everything into consideration the final cost was in the region of $350,000) Concern was expressed about the cost over-run and discussions took place as to possible savings.

Various options were presented but the consensus was that those options would lessen the quality of the work. It was therefore decided not to proceed with any changes to the original design. A development application (DA) was submitted to the Sydney City Council and approved on 24 July 1998 subject to certain conditions.

Inauguration

On 2 September 1998 Mary McAleese, President of Ireland, removed the first stone  from the wall in preparation for the erection of the sculpture.(see speech)She pledged $55,000 as a gift from the Irish Government which was matched at a later date by the Commonwealth of Australia.

Unveiling

On 28 August 1999 in the presence of some 2500 people including 800 famine orphan descendants the monument was unveiled by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir William Deane. (see speech)

The Irish Famine Monument was commissioned by the HHT of NSW and funded by donations from Government bodies, the Land Titles Office and the Irish Community.

by

Tom Power