Famine town first to honour victims

A TOWN decimated by the Great Famine will host the State’s first public national Famine commemoration event next week.

Skibbereen in west Cork was one of the country’s worst affected areas during the Famine in the 1840s.

The Skibbereen Union, which covered a vast area from Rosscarbery to Goleen, had an estimated population of 105,000 in the 1840s. At least 28,000 of those people died of hunger between 1845 and 1850, with a further 8,000 forced to emigrate. It is estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 people were buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town.