The Galway Famine Ship Memorial is a memorial located in Salthill,

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

, Ireland. It was unveiled on 4 July 2012. The monument is an expansion of a pre-existing monument to Celia Griffin, a girl who died at age 6 on the streets of

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

. Flanking the original monument, made of limestone, are two sandstone monuments carved in the shape of ships' sails. Each sail is engraved with the names of 50 ships which carried those escaping the Great Famine. These ships, sometimes known as

coffin ships A coffin ship () was any of the ships that carried Irish immigrants escaping the Great Irish Famine and Highlanders displaced by the Highland Clearances. Coffin ships carrying emigrants, crowded and disease-ridden, with poor access to foo ...

, were often poorly maintained and allowed for the rapid spread of disease, resulting in many deaths during the voyages.

References

Monuments and memorials in the Republic of Ireland {{Ireland-struct-stub Great Famine (Ireland) monuments and memorials

See also

References