An Athenry man and the Australian Famine memorial

By Tom Gilmore

FRANK Smyth, who left Athenry over 40 years ago, is now lauded in West Australia for doing the finishing stonework on the Irish Famine memorial unveiled by President Michael D Higgins in Perth during his recent Australian visit.

The memorial titled An Gorta Mor was erected by The Western Australia Irish Famine Commemoration in partnership with the City of Subiaco, Perth.
While Frank was responsible for the granite plinth and surrounds, there is another Galway connection as it commemorates the Irish orphan girls, many from Mountbellew and Castleblakeney, sent to Australia as teenagers to provide wives for the colonists following the Great Famine.
Especially remembered are the girls who arrived in Western Australia in the early 1850s and the bronze sculpture by artists Charles Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith depicts a mother keening for her children, lost through starvation and forced emigration as a result of the Famine.

Read the full feature in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald