AGM 2011 09

admin

Cobh has also seen much sorrow and sadness in times of peace as it was the very last sight of Ireland for many emigrants leaving for the States and Canada.  While emigration was at its height in the years following the Irish Famine of 1845, large numbers continued to emigrate into modern times to avoid hardship at home and sek a better life.  This statute on the quayside at Cobh portrays 15 year old Annie Moore with her two brothers.  She was the first person to be processed at the new immigration centre which opened on the 1st January 1892 at Ellice Island in the USA, and the first of 12 million emigrants of all nations that followed her before the centre closed in 1924.  Annie Moore has since become an iconic figure of Irish emigration.  Photo: Jim McFaul, May 2011.