Past Silhouettes

zoom

Edward Delaney Famine Memorial, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2010 Ardfern

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Famine_Memorial,_Dublin,_October_2010_(02).JPG

This generation is entrusted to

Acknowledge

All unburied, forgotten

Victims of the

Desolate mid 1800’s

Mortality by starvation;

The overwhelming demise of

Numerous adults, children

The whitest flower

Betrayed by ugliness beneath

Crops provided nil

To satisfy your requirements

You succumbed to famine or fever

Absence of dignity in death

On roadsides, in ditches

Cabins or hospital

Amid Snows, torrents, gales.

Workhouses; places of

Extreme distress

Separation of parents

Plus siblings

Cold walls

Inadequate portions

Malnutrition, diseases,

Prisonlike;

Hard labour

Relief works

Disintegration of stones

Flight from land

Terror at sea

Families decimated.

This day we beseech forgiveness

As this nation recognizes

The suffering loss

Provoked by the

Absence of human compassion

We survivors must commemorate

All unfortunate souls

On this hallowed ground.

Future descendents have

An obligation to

Remember.