New memorial to orphan girls sent from Cork to Australia during the Famine

'Earl Grey scheme' memorial unveiling was attended by a great, great granddaughter of one of the girls sent to Australia

Moira Deasy, Australia's ambassador designate Chantelle Taylor, and historian Michelle O'Mahony at the unveiling at Dunmanway Community Hospital, Co Cork, of the memorial to the 14 orphan girls sent to Australia as part of the Earl Grey Scheme during the Famine. Picture: David Creedon 

A memorial has been unveiled in West Cork to remember a poignant forgotten chapter of the Irish Famine story — 14 orphan girls shipped from famine-ravaged Ireland to Australia under a resettlement scheme almost two centuries ago.

The monument was unveiled in Dunmanway thanks to the generosity of Heather Northwood, a great-great-granddaughter of Ellen Desmond, one of the 14 orphan girls relocated from the town’s workhouse in 1849 to start a new life in Australia under the British government’s Earl Grey scheme.