page_title: Ennistymon
section_title: Memorial
hierarchical_section_title: Ennistymon / Features / Memorial
caption_attribution_description: English: Monument "An Gorta Mor" on the road between Ennistymon to Lahinch in County Clare. Remembering the Great Famine in Ireland. Located close to the former Workhouse.
context_page_description: Ennistymon or Ennistimon is a country market town in County Clare, near the west coast of Ireland. The River Inagh, with its small rapids known as the Cascades, runs through the town, behind the main street. A bridge across the river leads to nearby Lahinch, on the N67 national secondary road. The town is connected to Ennis by the N85, continuing the settlement's main street.
context_section_description: The An Gorta Mór ("The Great Hunger") Memorial was erected a mile outside Ennistymon on the road to Lahinch to commemorate the memory of the victims of the Great Famine from 1845 to 1850. It was dedicated on 20 August 1995 – the 150th anniversary of the Famine. Located across from Palladian Ennistymon Hospital, itself built on the grounds of the local workhouse (Union of Kilmanaheen), it was erected by a combined effort of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), Board of Erin, Board of America and Clare County Council.
  The monument was designed by an artist from Co Kerry and depicts an account found in the Minutes of the Meetings of the Boards of Guardians for Ennistymon Union held in the County Archives. 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 25 February 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 to be 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 it will starve. -- Rob S.  Constable''
  One side of the memorial depicts a child standing before the workhouse door, while across from that is the head of an anguished mother and two hands clenched in frustration or anger above the sorrowful text of the pleading  note.
caption: The "An Gorta Mor" Monument
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