This large wooden cross was apparently erected in Clonakilty workhouse in the 19th century. Now hailed as the “Famine Cross”, the workhouse in Clonakilty did not open until December 1851, towards the end of the Famine period and the cross was probably a later addition.
The cross was brought to St Vincent’s Church in Sunday’s Well in Cork city during renovation works carried out in Clonakilty hospital (formerly the workhouse) in the 1980s. It was then deemed missing for decades.
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But in 2013, it was retrieved from a builder’s skip in Sunday’s Well after it caught the attention of Clonakilty-based accountant Liam Santry on reading its plaque, which refers to Clonakilty.
>>> READ MORE: The workhouse cemetery: “Clonakilty God help us”
To mark the return of the cross to Clonakilty, over 200 people took part in a silent procession through the town in April 2014. The procession was led by the town’s mayor Phil O’Regan and parish priest Mgr Aidan O’Driscoll, while parishioners took turns carrying the 2.7m-high pine cross. The procession commenced at the workhouse cemetery in Gallanes, on the eastern edge of the town and then paused outside the grounds of Clonakilty Community Hospital to recite the Lord’s Prayer for the Sick.
The cross now occupies a permanent position inside the Roman Catholic parish church in Clonakilty.
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Irish Examiner, 10 and 19 Apr. 2014.
Southern Star, 12 Apr. 2014.
