The Irish Hunger Memorial: Commemoration for the Great Irish Hunger

The Irish Hunger Memorial is a form of commemoration for the Great Irish Hunger located on the banks of the Hudson River, Manhattan. Finished in 2001, the Irish Hunger Memorial was designed by a team of 1100 Architect led by landscape architect Gail Wittwer-Laird and artist Brian Tolle. Worked under the Battery Park City Authority, the team built the monument in order to let the visitors contemplate the famine and its relations to today’s world hunger tragedy.

The Irish Hunger Memorial

The team in charge decided to re-create a rugged landscape on a base of Irish limestone and illuminated glass.

The rugged landscape comprises abandoned potato fields, walls made of stones representing Ireland’s 32 countries, and a varying species of native Irish plants.

The Irish Hunger Memorial also comes with base inscribed with text that tells the history of the Great Irish Hunger. Moreover, it touches the tragedy concerning global hunger in general.

A Passage Way

The base provides an entrance on the west side where the visitors can enter and ascend through an existing passageway that opens into a ruined famine-era cottage of County Mayo.

The ruins were donated to the project and reconstructed to become the part of the memorial. Meanwhile, the landscape cantilevers out toward the illuminated stone and glass base structure.

It rises from street level at its southeastern corner to a height of 25 feet at its western end. With this landscape plan, it allows visitors to take a look at the views of the Statue of Liberty, Hudson River, and Ellis Island.

Via 1100 Architect