Doolough Tragedy Cross in Co.Mayo Ireland. (by Mick Bourke) The Doolough Tragedy is an event that took place during the Great Irish Famine in south west County Mayo.The story goes that in 1849, at the height of the potato famine in Ireland, six hundred starving people arrived at Delphi Lodge where they pleaded with the Marquis of Sligo to give them some food. He refused and sent them away to their deaths for 3 miles into the Doolough Valley, some 400 men, women and children gave up hope and perished by the roadside. A cross and an annual Famine Walk between Louisburgh and Doolough commemorates this event. The monument in Doolough valley has an inscription from Mahatma Gandhi: How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings?The simple monument at Doolough is a sad but fitting reminder of the horrific sufferings that befell the Irish people during that time