On our way back from the cliffs we made a quick picture stop along the road to see a memorial. The “An Gorta Mor Memorial” was erected to the memory of the victims of the great potato crop failures of 1845 to 1851 known as the Great Hunger (An Gorta Mor) and dedicated on August 20, 1995, the 150th anniversary of that tragedy. It is located across from a deserted workhouse and mass grave on the Lahinch Road between Ennistymon and Lahinch.
The monument depicts an account found in the archived papers of a workhouse. The account centered on a note that was pinned to the torn shirt of a barefoot orphan boy who was left at the workhouse door on the freezing cold morning of February 25, 1848. The note read:
Gentlemen,
There is a little boy named Michael Rice of Lahinch aged about 4 years. He is an orphan, his father having died last year and his mother has expired on last Wednesday night, who is now about being buried without a coffin!! unless ye make some provision for such. The child in question is now at the workhouse gate expecting to be admitted, if not he will starve.
Robs.S. Constable
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