Spirit Of Place Swinford Begins – “The Procession Of The Souls”

Spirit of Place Swinford “The Procession of the Souls” is a memorial dedicated to the history of the Great famine in Swinford Co Mayo.

Spirit of Place Swinford under construction

Spirit of Place Swinford under construction Wednesday.

The memorial is designed and constructed by Travis Price and his students from the school of Architecture & Planning/Spirit of Place-Spirit of Design in Washington USA. The memorial is being constructed on the site of the Famine & Paupers Graveyard which has been under restoration by Swinford Tidy Towns since 2012.

Spirit of Place Swinford 2015

Travis and his team of students first arrived in Swinford in January 2015 to learn about the history of the Famine workhouse and graveyard. On the Monday morning the group were given a tour of all the historical sites in Swinford by local historians Michael Comer and Michéal Murphy. Some members from Swinford Tidy Towns committee also accompanied the group on the tour, along with Cllr Michael Smyth, some students from Scoil Muire & Padraig and Danny O’Toole (Mayo Co Co project manager). As well as a tour of the town, the group were also brought to the old Protestant Graveyard, the handball alley, the Church, the old fever hospital, the Famine Plot and the Paupers Graveyard.

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The Spirit of Place Swinford installation will be the initiation of a larger project by Mayo County Council linking all the heritage sites around Swinford. We will have more information and loads of photos of the project as it progress’s. You can follow the daily progress of Travis and his team of students on their Spirit of Place Swinford blog.

Michael
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