Liverpool remembers Irish famine victims.

The names of 7,500 paupers who were buried in unmarked graves in the British port of Liverpool over 150 years ago were read out at a recent service of remembrance and reconciliation. The majority were victims of the Irish potato famine in which a million people died and a million more were forced to emigrate. The service was held in Liverpool's Anglican Parish Church of St Nicholas.

They had died of starvation and a typhus epidemic which swept Liverpool in 1847. About half the victims were children under five. `Most perished before they even had a chance to learn to speak,' said Ian McKeane, a part-time lecturer in Irish history and Secretary of the Great Famine Commemoration Committee.

Canon Nicholas Frayling, Rector of Liverpool, commented that it was not only their suffering but `the neglect of these people as the famine developed that we remembered'. The service followed Prime Minister Tony Blair's earlier expression of regret, shortly after his election, for Britain's neglect of the famine.

During the service, eight members of Liverpool's Irish community took an hour and a half to read out all the victims' names. For me as an Englishman, it was a harrowing and painful experience to recognize that this was only a fraction of the total famine dead. A contemporary report, read at the service, said that Liverpool, `already one of the unhealthiest cities, has become the hospital and cemetry of Ireland'.

The act of remembrance ended at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church where the Lord Mayor placed a wreath on the memorial to 10 priests who died in the same year from typhus caught whilst ministering to the poor.

1847 was one of the worst years of the famine. 200,000 Irish migrants poured into Liverpool, seeking refuge in British cities or transport to the USA, Canada, and elsewhere. Many, weakened by hunger, died on `coffin ships' before they reached their destination.

Liverpool was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of penniless, sick and starving people. Typhus raged through crowded slums where 20 and more packed into single rooms.

The catastrophe left a legacy of pain among the Irish and shame to Britain whose government had failed in its responsibility to the people it then ruled. The Great Famine Commemoration Committee now plans to raise a permanent memorial in Liverpool to the victims. The British and Irish governments have each contributed [pounds sterling] 5,000 for this, but most of the money needed has come from individual donations.