The Famine Graveyard and the Workhouse in Callan, Co Kilkenny, Eire

Whilst visiting my mum in Callan, Co Kilkenny I decided to visit the old workhouse and also the Famine Graveyard, known as 'The Cherry Field'. It was a shocking experience. i thought that I knew about The Great Hunger but was not prepared for this.
Furthermore, the scenario was replicated around the country, whilst the British Government stood by, but making sure food was being exported to England. James Connolly's 'Labour in Irish History' is an indictment of the Robert Peel, Trevelyan government. In Callan alone 3317 people died of starvation in the workhouse between 1845 and 1851.
Countless more died in the workhouse over the period 1841-1922 and were literally carted to the mass grave which I was standing on.
It's like some scene from hell. Imagine the scene, dead bodies being regularly carted to a graveyard (that took me at least 30 minutes to reach on foot and on mostly good road) to be put in a paupers' mass grave. No names, no recognition of lives lived. Those two fields are their memorial.

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[Dclinch321]

a good part of our six week stay was in Windgap where my mother is from. We're not staying long she said. Well I'm still here after 54 years! Mum went back to Windgap some years ago and is now in a care home in Callan with age related memory loss.

I knew none of this history in Callan until recently. I still can't believe it took nearly 30 min to walk from the workhouse on mostly good tarmac road. Those death carts must have been an almost daily sight, and this in just one town in Ireland.

[Dclinch321]

I agree. I have read much literature over the years. The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith and also Labour in Irish History by James Connolly are to my mind some of the best accounts and analyses of this wholly avoidable series of events.

I was shocked by the logistics of transporting the nameless dead on carts from the Workhouse in Callan to the mass grave at the incongruously named 'Cherryfield'.

When we emigrated to England in 1957 we would go 'home' to Ireland every summer holiday.

[Theresaitaly]

Thank you for posting this. I went to the famine graveyard a few years ago and could not believe how far down that side road it was. I dont think English people are aware of the full horror of the famine in Ireland- it was covered up by the government at the time and the true facts have never come out. Theresa