(1867-1951)
Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, Bangor, Northern Ireland
Growing up in Belfast, Amy was troubled by the plight of mill girls (named, ‘Shawlies’) who were largely overlooked by the church. She set up a Sunday class and, in 1887 she and her family opened a church for the girls to attend. Now called the Welcome Evangelical Church it is still operating in west Belfast.
In adulthood Amy became a Christian missionary, moving to South India in 1895.
There, she opened an orphanage rescuing hundreds of children from being exploited or sold into prostitution or slavery. In 1901 she founded a mission in Dohnavur, and the Fellowship remains in existence to this day facilitating nurseries, a school and a hospital. Amy served in India for 55 years earning the name, ‘Mother to the Motherless’. In that time she wrote 35 books about her work as a missionary.
The sculpture was unveiled in 2017, the 150th anniversary of Carmichael’s birth and captures her as a 10-year-old girl. Sculptor Ross Wilson also crafted a ‘Shawlie’ statue, unveiled in 2010 which sits on the junction between Crumlin Road and Cambrai Street (where the Welcome Church resides) in Belfast.
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