IT was a poignant moment for Heather Northwood at Dunmanway Community Hospital last Saturday as the Australian native unveiled a specially commissioned memorial and an interpretative sign to remember the town’s frequently forgotten famine orphan girls.
Heather’s great-great grandmother, Ellen Desmond was one of 14 famine orphan girls shipped to Australia in 1849 from Dunmanway as part of the Earl Grey Scheme of assisted passage.
Heather Northwood, great-great-granddaughter of Ellen Desmond, with Justin Walter and Kristie Davison from Mummyhead Studios in Skibbereen, who created the memorial. (Photo: John Allen)
It was fitting that the ceremony to mark 175 years since they were sent to Australia was held in the church on the hospital grounds, which was previously home to the town’s workhouse and where Ellen would have worked and lived.
Speaking at the ceremony, which was also attended by Ambassador Designate of Australia Chantelle Taylor and several public representatives as well as some of the Friends of Dunmanway Community Hospital, history and heritage consultant Michelle O’Mahony said these girls were largely forgotten about until now.
Both she and Heather worked on this project over the last number of years.
‘As a historian, days like today are truly unique and it’s all about when a community comes together to tell a story. We are telling that story with this interpretive sign as well as bespoke memorial which Heather paid for herself,’ said Michelle.
She also thanked Cork County Council’s financial support for the interpretive sign, as well as Skibbereen-based Mummyhead Studios who used 3D techniques to construct a special memorial to remember the ‘Earl Grey Girls.’
Heather, who lives in Melbourne, said that as far as she knows, she is the first descendant of Ellen Desmond to return to Dunmanway.
‘On this sacred space Ellen left here in November 1849, never to return. Like so many others the journey was marked by sorrow and strength and we are here to acknowledge all our ancestors, and not just her, as we are all connected,’ she said.
‘I only found out that I had Irish ancestry seven years ago and this homecoming is beyond expectation.’
‘This memorial is for my mum as well as Ellen, and all those orphan girls.’
