So, this weekend, we followed a City of Sydney Irish walk which took as through some of the significant places where events concerning Irish immigrants in the young colony of Sydney occurred.
We learnt that
- about 20,000 people were in Hyde Park on St Patrick’s Day in 1878 when there was an anti-Catholic riot.
- that monument on the road at the top of the hill near St Mary’s Cathedral on the road to the Art Gallery was just a drinking fountain.
- There’s a significant Irish Famine memorial at Hyde Park Barracks. Really cleverly done, it shows a dining table divided by a wall.
- During the six years of great Irish Famine, when their potato crop was ruined by potato blight, about one million died and another one million left Ireland. The memorial remembers the 4114 orphan girls who were shipped to the Australian colonies. Some married, others were employed for different domestic work.
- The original Martin Place only ran between George and Pitt Streets.
Drinking Fountain
Irish Famine Memorial at Hyde Park Barracks
Irish Famine Memorial at Hyde Park Barracks
State Library
The windows are inspired by the Book of Kells
St Mary’s Cathedral
St Mary’s Cathedral
So, this weekend, we... 