Health Service Executive chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm has paid tribute to the victims of the Great Famine in his native town.
He laid a wreath at a newly- sealed tomb for victims controversially removed from their original graves in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim. He said that some of them may have died in 1846, the year his grandfather was born nearby.
He also drew a comparison with the wealth of their descendants, reflected in impressive surrounding property and cranes on the skyline, and the dire poverty that caused the deaths of the people being commemorated.
Prof Drumm was at a special memorial service on Saturday at a famine garden in the grounds of the HSE's multi-million euro north west headquarters in Manorhamilton.
Seventy-three famine victims were laid to rest for the final time more than 156 years after they died of starvation and malnutrition in the nearby old workhouse and fever hospital.
The remains included adults and children, some still cradled in their mothers' arms when they were discovered five years ago.
Locals were furious when they were unearthed during the 2001 construction of the offices.
They were removed from the site for investigation by archaeologists in Limerick. But when the study was completed a year later there was not a suitable place for their reburial. The remains were left in a container for five years as their fate was decided.
They were returned earlier this year to Manorhamilton after a campaign led by a residents group headed by former local Irish Countrywomen's Association chairwoman Rose McPadden.