Our TY Local History students recently visited the Kilkenny Famine Experience at MacDonagh Junction, following a series of videos at key locations and answering questions that deepened their understanding of this significant chapter in our past.
The final monument left a lasting impression. Sculptor Ani Mollereau’s powerful piece features brass etchings of fingerprints from nearly 976 people connected to the Kilkenny Union Workhouse, the local community, and the diaspora. These were gathered from visitors who signed their names and provided fingerprints, later cast into brass and placed on the limestone crypt where the famine victims’ remains now rest.
During construction of MacDonagh Junction in the early 2000s, archaeologists uncovered a mass burial site linked to the workhouse, revealing the remains of approximately 970 individuals who died between 1847 and 1851. This discovery shed light on the devastating impact of the Great Famine and the lives lost in Kilkenny during that time.
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