
The Irish Hunger Memorial (Irish: ) is a park at the corner of
Vesey Street and North End Avenue in the
Battery Park City
Battery Park City is a mainly residential planned community and neighborhood on the west side of the southern tip of the island of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by the Hudson River on the west, the Hudson River shoreline on the nor ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. The memorial is dedicated to raising awareness of the
Great Irish Hunger, referred to as in
Irish, in which over one million starved to death between 1845 and 1852. In the decade after 1845, over 900,000 Irish emigrants entered the port of New York so that by 1855 Irish-born New Yorkers comprised almost one third of the city's population.
Construction of the memorial began in March 2001, and despite the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
on the nearby
World Trade Center, which also affected surrounding areas, the memorial was completed and dedicated on July 16, 2002.
The memorial, designed collaboratively by artist Brian Tolle,
landscape architect Gail Wittwer-Laird, and architecture firm
1100 Architect
1100 Architect is an architecture firm based in New York City and Frankfurt founded by principals David Piscuskas and Juergen Riehm. It provides architectural design, programming, space analysis, interior design, and master planning services to ...
, is landscaped with stones, soil, and native vegetation transported from the western coast of
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
— with stones from every
Irish county.
An authentic Irish cottage from 19th century Carradoogan, in the parish of
Attymass,
County Mayo
County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...
, belonged to the Slack family — and was deserted in the 1960s.
The Slack family donated the cottage to the memorial in "memory of all the Slack family members of previous generations who emigrated to America and fared well there."
In August 2016, the memorial was temporarily closed for waterproofing work and was reopened in August 2017.
Gallery
HungerMemorialNumber3.jpg, North side, showing gradual rise of the structure
HungerMemorial9.jpg, West side, showing the high end
HungerMemorialNumber5.JPG, Stones placed on the roof with names of the Irish counties
NYCIrishFamineMemorialPassageway060709.JPG, Passageway connecting the west side to the ruined stone cottage and the roof
Irish Hunger Memorial-NYC-2012.jpg, Interior of cottage ruins
See also
*
List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
References
External links
*
Architectural Record Magazine''Between Two Worlds: Remembering the Hungry'' By Roger Shepherd
Hunger for Memorials: Article from ''Landscape Architecture'', March 2003
Photo Tour of Irish Hunger Memorial
* Tourist Information Site
Irish Hunger Memorial brochure
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Hunger Memorial
2002 sculptures
Battery Park City
Irish-American culture in New York City
Great Famine (Ireland) monuments and memorials
Land art
Monuments and memorials in Manhattan
Tourist attractions in Manhattan
2002 establishments in New York City