“Kilkenny workhouse like so many workhouses has a dark history. During the great famine (1845-51) over 1,000 people died from the horrific conditions, 800 of whom were buried in the grounds of the workhouse.
Bizarrely however, in 2007 a €300 million shopping centre was opened in the workhouse. Claiming to have “sensitively and beautifully” restored the workhouse, the shopping centre perversely built a food court in the plaza surrounded by the workhouse called “workhouse square”. The fact that a mass grave of 800 famine victims was found during construction of the shopping centre seems to have been lost along the way.”
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Talking of queens let us remember the Famine Queen herself and this story featured by the excellent Irish History Podcast. The headline says it all: “Only In Ireland”.
People are upset by the visiting British head of state meeting the northern deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness? The desecration of a mass grave that held 800 men, women and children, victims of An Gorta Mór or the Irish holocaust is far more upsetting and telling of the venal times we live in.
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