Famine commemoration in Roscrea

On Friday, June 5, the Kennedy Park committee had the pleasure of holding a commemoration of the girls from the Roscrea workhouse who were selected to travel on the Pemberton Ship through the Earl Grey Scheme to Australia during the famine in Ireland.

On board the Pemberton there was 208 Irish girls from Tipperary, the largest percentage of orphaned girls from a single county.

On board was Ann Whittaker, who was 18 and was registered as having no parents, and she was selected to travel to Australia. We can only imagine that she was scared and fearful of what her life would be once she stepped off the ship to begin a new life, or if she would even make it off the boat.

She was very lucky as she settled in with a beautiful woman who would look after them. Ann met and married her husband, a lawyer named Stowers who worked hard to provide for his wife and family, and when he died he left her and their children well provided for.

Four years ago, a great, great-grandson of Ann Keith Stowers was walking through the estate when a small child stopped to talk to him and Keith noticed the arch at the top of Kennedy Park in the famine memorial garden and started to make enquiries. Two years ago Keith made contact with Pauline Simmons through email and that is where the story starts.

FRIENDSHIP GREW

They started to email and a friendship grew between the two, and Keith had a lot of questions to ask about the workhouse and wanted to know where it was and what had the arch had to do with it, and so he started to research.

When he made contact with Pauline, she was able to answer some of the questions and he heard that when the workhouse was knocked in the early 1990s by the Mid West Health Board, the doorway was carefully removed and stored in Thurles. The health board promised if a suitable site was found, the stone would be returned.

George Cunningham, a local historian, photographed the doorway in situ for the Roscrea People. On seeing the photographs, Jerry Cahir conceived the idea of using the doorway as a memorial to all those who died during the famine times in Roscrea and in particular those who are buried in the adjacent graveyard.

The chairperson of the development committee, Brigid Feehan was only too happy to help organise for the doorway to be placed in the garden adjacent to the grounds of the old workhouse.

Keith decided to travel once again to Roscrea to see the doorway and to bring some information as to how the girls did in Australia.

Emails and arrangements were in full swing between Keith and Pauline and than he gave the date as to when he would arrive.

So on Friday we organised a commemoration and asked Keith to give a bit of history of his home and great, great-grandmother and the girls from the Roscrea Workhouse.

A small gathering was organised. Keith laid a beautiful wreath and we asked the Parish Priest to say a few prayers. The weather stayed fine and we think Keith enjoyed his visit.

He travelled back to Australia on Saturday and with him he took the beautiful memories and the beautiful gifts given to him from so many, and some of our heartfelt wishes too.

At 83 Keith, was very brave to make this journey on his own, and who knows, maybe we will meet again.

THANKS

We would like to thank a few people for their help to organise and be present on the day:

Keith Stowers for helping to make the day beautiful and for gracing us with his beautiful presence.

Fr John Molloy for the prayers

Michael Smith and Tipperary County Council

Jerry Cahir, Dick and Mary Conroy, Brigid Feehan

Sharon Rowland and the CE Scheme

Jackie Flynn for the baking

Our TUS workers, Roman and Vadim for all their hard work in our estate

Davy Monahan for the power and the job he does to keep the estate fab

Michael Kirwan, NTDC

Kate, Aine and Ger, our community gardaí

John O’Rourke

Ken Wall

Simon Simmons for the PA system and sound

Con O’Lone, Chairman of Kennedy Park Residents

Everyone that gave treats

Without all these people we would never have achieved anything, so a huge Thank You from us.

Keith, we wish you a safe journey home with wishes we may meet again; we hope you enjoyed your visit and look forward to your continuing friendship and emails.