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Cardiff remembers the victims of the Famine
By Peter Foley
Aside from the dances and parades around the globe to mark Ireland’s
national day, a poignant reminder of Irish immigration was staged in Cardiff.
The moving ceremony at the Celtic Cross Memorial, which was erected in
1999, to those who perished during and after the Great Irish Famine of
the 1840s was held at Cathays Park Cemetery on St. Patrick’s Day.
And the presence of Ireland’s Consul General — along with
the leading political and civic leaders in Wales — underlined the
historic closeness of the two nations.
Third-generation Irishman Oliver Moss — who has links in Co. Cork
and who is responsible for Welsh Affairs at the US Embassy — represented
the American government at the ceremony.
The Irish legacy in Wales continues with almost 50 per cent of Cardiff’s
current population able to trace a link back to the Emerald Isle.
Now that connection is being kept very much alive by the Wales Famine
Forum — the group that organises the ceremony every March and who
were responsible for getting the monument erected in 1999.
Three local schools were represented and all played an active part in
the proceedings — a rendition of the Fields Of Athenry prompted
many a moistened eye.
Colm McGrady, the Consul General for Ireland in Wales, fulfilled his diplomatic
duty by reading the St. Patrick’s Day message from President Mary
McAleese.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, presiding officer of the Welsh Assembly, acknowledge
the debt owed by Wales to the Irish.
Lord Lieutenant Sir Norman Lloyd-Edwards, Cardiff’s Lord Mayor Councillor
Gill Bird and local Westminster MP Jenny Willott also laid wreaths at
the base of the monument.
The Irish and Welsh national anthems concluded the moving hour-long ceremony,
which also acknowledged the work of John O’Sullivan, the local journalist
who was an authority in Irish-Welsh Affairs before his death earlier this
year. |
