Famine Memorial

The Famine statues, in Custom House Quay in the Dublin Docklands, were presented to the City of Dublin in 1997.

These statues commemorate the Great Famine of the mid 19th century. During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.

No event in history has had a more profound effect on Ireland and the worldwide Irish Community than that of the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849).

The cause of Famine is blamed on a potato disease commonly known as potato blight. Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland, where one third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food, was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate.

The statues were designed and crafted by Dublin sculptor Rowan Gillespie.