Another Emerald Isle

On the west side of Lower Manhattan the street opens onto a wild green lawn that slopes up toward the waterfront.  Among the grasses and plants there are walls, the ruins of a cottage.  Surrounding and in counterpoint to this idyllic scene is New York as we know it, typified by the towering and (on a good day) sparkling One World Trade Center.

But this oasis isn't just there for its own sake.  It is the Irish Hunger Memorial.  Though it opened in 2002, it took me until last June to make it there.  (In comparison, Boston's memorial has been in place since 1998, and its handy location on the Freedom Trail means that it's hard to miss.)  I consider the timing fortuitous, since it was a wonderful day for it.  The memorial pays tribute to those who died in the 19th century famine, and to those who escaped to immigrate to the city.  The building is a cottage, originally a home in County Mayo, transported and reconstructed here, surrounded by native Irish plants.

(The Irish Famine Memorials website is an excellent source for pictures and transcriptions of monuments around the world.)

The entrance to the memorial is around the back, where a tunnel lined with quotations and statistics about the Famine.  Visitors emerge from the dim tunnel into daylight and walk a path that passes through the cottage and among the vegetation.  A gentle slope leads to a space that overlooks the Hudson River; by peering to the left the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are visible.  The memorial is a reminder of the homes and landscape that many Irish immigrants were forced to leave behind.  It's poignant, especially since they would go on to face so much persecution when they reached the United States.  May we all be so resilient and determined in the face of hardship.

I was there--I myself took these photos--and I can hardly believe how beautiful it all looks.  What a perfect day.