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Discussion for Irish Hunger Memorial

Given the timing of its inauguration, in July 2002, and its location, just blocks from the World Trade Center, the Irish Hunger Memorial was initially viewed by many visitors though the lens of the September 11 attacks. While under construction, the memorial even played a small role in the 9/11 recovery effort: rescue workers at Ground Zero borrowed the memorial’s earth-moving equipment for their work. Writing in The New York Times, Roberta Smith said that the memorial “arrived at a time when Americans, especially young Americans, have a deeper understanding of tragedy and grief, of fate’s capriciousness and of the complexities of power.”

Today, the Irish Hunger Memorial is more likely to be seen in its own context, and what comes across is its clear intention to link past and future. Although it specifically (and beautifully) evokes 19th century Ireland, it is, in the same way that mass atrocity memorials often are, aimed at preventing future atrocities––in this case, famines.

The inscriptions around the base of the memorial, which refer to various and diverse facts about famine and hunger, indicate that the memorial exists not merely to dwell in sadness over a specific event, but to send a forward-looking message and provoke thought about a current and relevant socio-economic problem.

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