emigration at the fountain

The Fountain in Waterloo Place was the site chosen to place a series of statues depicting a typical farewell scene of families who were about to embark on a journey to America or Australia in search of their fortune or to begin a new and better life in the lands of opportunity. Derry and Cork were the most important ports for emigration of Irish citizens after the Great Famine in Ireland. Today great efforts are made to retrace family trees and Derry through the local Genealogy centre offers computerised tracing techniques for speedy recovery of past records. Open All Year.