Top o' the Morning to you...

Never mind that the phrase is not Irish at all, but a Hollywood creation or that it's Friday at 11 am and I've just stumbled out of bed. No, not a heavy night of Irish imbibing, (Mayor Bloomberg, take note), but I did treat myself to a trip to the city yesterday. I had a late morning appointment in Murray Hill, so took the bus into Port Authority and then walked down Fifth Avenue. Beautiful day and the crowds were already surging up the street--young, green, carrying suspicious looking Gatorade bottles, but at this point energetic and exuberant. A nice feeling of happiness and well being on the city.Today's Bergen Record had a picture of a bare chested reveler with the Irish flag colors painted on his body and my first thought was "I saw that guy!"  (Do you think there was more than one?)


After my meeting, I continued south, subway to Chambers Street and searched for the Irish Famine Memorial, commemorating the Irish Potato Famine or the Great Hunger (an Gorta Mor in Irish) from 1847-1852. It's not labeled, but when you see the distinctive rock fences, the waving grasses and heather and an abandoned stone cottage, you think "Gee, that looks like the Irish countryside, plunked down right here by the river and the financial buildings."  It's pretty cool.  


You enter through a tunnel marked with quotes from literature and the newspapers of 1840's and there is a voiceover about world hunger.  You emerge on the hillside through the deteriorating stone house and take the short walk up to the viewpoint overlooking the river with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island off to the south. Spectacular, quiet setting and evocative memorial but under the influence of my son the historic interpreter, I was mentally making notes on where they could add a kiosk, more signage, some interpretation of the event that, while caused by nature, was exploited by the Brits and launched a migration of up to two million Irish and the death of another million in Ireland, reducing the population by 25%.  Under the landlord-tenant farming economy, the rural poor were particularly dependent on the potato crop for survival, as more and more land was cultivated for cattle and the British beef market. Exports of food continued throughout the 1840's, despite the starvation in Ireland.


I read afterwards that the stones of the memorial were from all 32 counties of Ireland and the quotes were separated by rows of Kilkenny limestone. The cottage had been transported from County Mayo and the size of the memorial--one quarter acre--was significant.  An 1847 amendment to the Irish Poor Law prohibited relief to any Irishman living on more than a quarter acre of land.


One quote I liked described the memorial as taking : "five minutes to see; a lifetime to absorb." The Action for World Hunger Center is located next door to the memorial . An estimated 925 million people are "undernourished" in the world today, 13% of the world population.

Memorial, as it faces the Hudson--right near the NJ ferry exit.

The stones from each county

A peasant face, if I ever I saw one!

Feels like the West coast of Ireland

Looking toward the top viewpoint

Located near the World Trade Center site, which is humming along with construction.