The Famine was the single biggest social catastrophy of the nineteenth centry. As a result of it, 1.5 million Irish men, women, and children emigrated and a staggering 1 million died - this out of a population of some 8 million people. In the years following the Famine, emigration continued unabated until the island's population was roughly half of what it had been in the pre-Famine period.

Given the extraordinary role that the Famine has played in Irish history, it is suprising that there has been very little public memorialization of the disaster and until recently, Irish commemoration was limited to the Strokestown Famine Museam which was created by a group of private individuals.