ExtraCredits
patreon
An Irish Famine Memorial
🕑 Added 2019-04-12 03:07:33 +0000 UTCA few of us from Extra Credits were in Boston a few weeks back for PAX East. Boston's certainly not a city that lacks for history. Big glass skyscrapers stand right next to preserved state buildings from the 1700s. We walked the bridge over the Boston Harbor every morning, right past the Boston Tea Party Museum. The number of plaques to read was dizzying. But this memorial, a block away from my hotel, stood out most.
Boston is one of the cities in America with the largest Irish American population. A majority of them came from the Potato Famine. Boston would be a lesser city without those people. I think this memorial captures a lot of what we tried to represent: the helpless horror of starvation, the bold hope of those who managed to escape, and the heartbreak of leaving behind those who couldn't. The families are a mirror of each other, just a short distance apart. The healthy mother looks back over her shoulder, the only connection between the two, as if she can hear her starving counterpart's cry.
The memorial was put up in 1998, to mark 150 years since the height of the Famine. Since then, it's been used as a rally point to protest for the rights of immigrants. Whatever your political leanings might be, it's important for us to be able to look to the past and its tragedies, so we can be better people.
Because History Matters. - A
Comments
Bill Lemmond
I have a friend, a vet of the first Gulf War. He and his wife had to wait 5 years for her to be let into the US from the Philippines. And as an immediate family member of a US citizen, she was the highest priority. If the Irish fleeing the famine were faced with a wait longer than that to enter the US legally, there would have been Irish sneaking in, all along the US coastline, in ship's boats.
Rossum
Yes, Downtown Boston is really not conducive to navigation. That said, to stumble on the memorial, unless your hotel was nearby, meant that you were very lost.
Caustic Chemist
PAX East was a wonderful time, but didn't leave much opportunity to do much exploring in Boston proper. Finding the Irish Famine Memorial was the result of some unintentional sightseeing after -ahem- several navigational errors. (Boston did not play well with my gps) Hopefully next year I can take some more time to actually look at the wonderful history of Boston! - A
Rossum
Also why no pictures of the Boston Massacre site, which was not far from there?
Veteran of the Mushroom Wars
Hopefully they'd find it true to fact, after getting over the whole "moving pictures/internet" thing
Martin Verran
I wonder what my Irish Ancestors, who came to England to Escape the Potato Famine, would've thought of the Extra History Series about said Famine?
Rossum
Sorry I was out of town that weekend!
Tiberia Prima
<3
