A Living Memorial To Hunger

Mercy Corps' new Action Center to End World Hunger will focus on food crises and poverty issues facing today's world. But just across the street is a monument to famine's past: the Irish Hunger Memorial.

Designed by artist Brian Tolle and the firm 1100 Architect, this landmark commemorates the famine that ravaged Ireland between 1845 and 1852, resulting in 1.5 million deaths and the emigration of hundreds of thousands to the U.S.

According to 1100 Architect principal Juergen Riehm, he and his firm were initially skeptical about what the memorial would accomplish. "We thought it was an unusual idea to commemorate and event that had happened so long ago in another country," Riehm said via e-mail recently. "But after further reflection and research, we learned that this event had influenced and shaped the development of New York City in a significant way."

The memorial brings this period of history to life through its design. It features a 96-by-170 foot multi-leveled field, terraced by brown stone walls, that slopes upwards to mimic the terrain of Ireland. More than 60 varieties of grasses and plants native to Ireland fill the terrain, which is dotted by rocks imported from each of Ireland's 32 counties.

The memorial's centerpiece is a famine-era stone cottage, which was disassembled piece-by-piece in Attymass, County Mayo, and shipped across the Atlantic. Riehm said reassembling the two-room cottage on site proved to be the biggest construction challenge..

While the landscape is meant to visually suggest Ireland during the famine, the base of the memorial — the concrete foundation on which the hilly landscape sits — features words from the era. Statistics, quotes and poetry are etched onto glass and Plexiglas panels. Stories of famines elsewhere are also featured, and the panels can be removed and updated to include the most recent relevant events.

Although the Irish Hunger Memorial commemorates a long-ago tragedy, Riehm and his team want it to be "a living memorial" that visitors find relevant today. It's appropriate that it will soon be paired in proximity with the Action Center to End World Hunger, where visitors will have ample opportunity to speak out against the scourge of hunger and poverty. The Irish Hunger Memorial stands a reminder of how hunger has impacted our lives in the past — but it also provides a powerful impetus to prevent future tragedies.