When Ann Shaw walked around South Reen Farm with her friend Susan O’Toole, she explained to Susan the horror that had occurred on the land underneath their feet and the desolation that was left behind. Over 200 people had lived on the peninsula in the mid-1840s. Later, Susan asked if she might create a memorial to the Famine victims of South Reen. Ann agreed immediately and gave Susan free rein to create whatever she wanted and to place it anywhere on the land.

After additional walks and contemplation Susan sketched out a design she called “The Tree Sentinels.” Susan envisioned a crescent-shaped line of eighteen trees standing twenty-seven feet high and three feet apart, looking toward the sea and the horizon, marking and keeping safe the memory of those who suffered in that dreadful time. In the late summer of 2001 Ann and Susan, with the help of Shaun Kent, began the construction of “The Tree Sentinels.” Eighteen trees were brought over from Castletownsend and placed in a five foot deep curved trench where they could be viewed by any boat passing below. Sixteen years later, Hurricane Ophelia felled the last few and only one and a half now remain.