The Famine Memorial Fountain is a memorial to the Great Famine in

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeat ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The memorial stands in a public square at an intersection between Dominick Street and Oliver Plunkett street.

History

The memorial was dedicated in 1997, and features three sets of hand that each catch the water as it flows into a large

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...

, in celebration of the towns former industrial past. A plaque on the memorial reads: '''This sculpture commemorates the famine and its effects in the zone. The mill wheel ties the sculpture to Mullingar by the legend of St Colman. The hands are the hands of thousands.

References

1997 sculptures Great Famine (Ireland) monuments and memorials Monuments and memorials in the Republic of Ireland {{Ireland-geo-stub Buildings and structures in Mullingar