Irish Hunger Memorial

Along the Hudson River at Battery Park City is a small but striking structure that most New Yorkers have never seen. It's the Irish Hunger Memorial.


I was biking around Battery Park City a few weeks ago and came across this very odd looking thing. It looks like a cross between a viewing platform and a launching pad. I took notice and came back to see it last week. To start with, Battery Park City is a secluded group of buildings on the Hudson river that forms an affluent community next to the oldest part of NYC. As I have said in past posts, I don't trust neighborhoods that don't have graffiti. Battery Park city is a very sterile and pristine area that, in my opinion, is not a very good representation of the city. But amidst the exclusive neighborhood is nice waterfront with outdoor cafe's, a marina, views of the harbor and the Irish Hunger Memorial.


The Memorial was built in 2001-2002 by Brian Toll to mark the Irish Famine of the 1840's, the wave of Irish immigration that followed and world hunger since. The structure includes an homage to 19th century irish country architecture and is built using soil and stone from each county in Ireland. The site is full of 62 kinds of plants taken from the original Killarney site and has been regrown on the 1/4 acre plot of soil. The 1/4 acre size is important to the concept of the memorial to mark the "poor law of 1847" that made anyone living on land larger than a 1/4 acre not eligible to receive government aid.


When you see the memorial there are quotes that encompass the facade from famous political figures that have spoken on hunger...110 quotes in all that spread over 2 miles of luminated space that glows at night. I wish i wrote down some of the quotes. There was one I liked from Frederick Douglas about the beautiful and sorrowful nature of the Irish folk music.


To get in to the memorial, you have to walk through a tunnel where you can hear spoken word recordings about poverty playing on a loop. It is a very well thought out memorial that I wish more people knew about. Go See It!!!