High Praise for Irish Monument to Great Famine
Mary Robinson
Former President of Ireland.
High praise for Irish monument to Great Famine by Tom Felle
SYDNEY'S Irish Famine Monument is one of the finest memorials to the millions who died, former Irish President Mary Robinson has said. Speaking at the monument during her visit to Sydney on Sunday, November 10,Mrs Robinson said she found it to be a "very moving and a very memorable event. "It is one of the most simple and eloquent statements about the Irish famine that I have seen. It appealed to me greatly because I do have an international viewpoint on life, and the fact that the artist had come from Iran, that somehow seemed even more special," she said.
He has known what it was like to be a refugee, she said, adding he had an insight into how the orphaned Irish girls must have felt when they first arrived in Australia. "Who would ever have though that there would be a monument to them; young Irish girl orphans, can you get lower in the riches scale than that.?"
She said it was very important that the Irish community remembered those who were very marginalised, very poor, very disregarded, and very low in their own self-esteem. Mrs Robinson quoted author Evan Boland when she said: "I want women who have been outside history to be written back into history, finding a voice where they found a vision".
"To find the names of otherwise completely forgotten girls in that very eloquent, elegant, simple, poignant monument was very special," she added. Famine Memorial Committee president Tom Power said that the memorial has received its "final seal of approval" with Mrs Robinson's visit.
"Did those 12 year-old orphan girls ever think their names would be on a monument 150 years later?"
The National Monument to the Great Irish Famine was unveiled on August 28, 1999 by Sir William Deane after a marathon fundraising effort that generated over $350,000. The project was inaugurated by Mrs Robinson's successor Mary McAleese during her State visit on September 2, 1998 and also won the support of the Irish, Australian and NSW governments.
Tom Felle
Deputy Editor, Irish Echo
A Message from Her Excellency Mary McAleese - President of Ireland
On the Occasion of the Opening of the Irish Famine Memorial in Sydney Australia
It is with great pleasure and pride that I convey warm greetings on behalf of the people of Ireland on this historic occasion of the unveiling of the memorial to the legacy of the Great Irish Famine at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney. I had the great honour and privilege of inaugurating the Memorial project during my State Visit to Australia in September 1998, and of meeting on that occasion with so many of the committed individuals involved with this project, as well as with the descendants of so many Irish men and women whose lives were affected by the Irish Famine and who found a home away from home in Australia. It was a deeply moving and emotional experience, and the memories of the stories and experiences of those people will stay with me forever, just as the memory of those who left Ireland in those tragic and traumatic times stays in the hearts and the spirit of the Irish family.
This memorial not only marks, with great respect and dignity, the suffering, pain and displacement of those lost generations of Ireland's sons and daughters, including the heroic and resilient "Orphan Girls" and their descendants, but it also celebrates the contribution which these Irish people have made to the development of Australia and so many other nations over the years.
In sending my congratulations on this occasion, I want to pay particular tribute to the Great Irish Famine Commemoration Committee, led by Tom Power, who have worked so tirelessly to make this dream a reality. Their efforts have been fully and generously supported by many organisations and individuals, including the Government of New South Wales, the Lord Mayor and the City of Sydney, the Historic Houses Trust, and the New South Wales Land Titles Office, but most of all by the Irish community across Australia. For all involved, this is a proud and historic day.
The Great Irish Famine has left permanent scars on our society and on our psyche. It is fitting that we should have a permanent memorial to help us to remember and reflect on those harrowing times and their consequences, so that through our reflection, we may seek to understand- going forward into the future, holding dear to us the values which have sustained us through the past.
Mary McAleese
President of Ireland.
