Statues of two families mark the Boston Irish Famine Memorial

Statues of two families mark the Boston Irish Famine Memorial

Located on Boston's Freedom Trail, the Boston Irish Famine Memorial features bronze sculptures that contrast the suffering of the Great Famine with the prosperity of Irish immigrants in America.

The Boston Irish Famine Memorial is a memorial park located on a plaza between Washington Street and School Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The park contains two groups of statues to contrast an Irish family suffering during the Great Famine of 1845–1852 with a prosperous family that had immigrated to America. Funded by a trust led by Boston businessman Thomas Flatley, the park was opened in 1998.

The park was the result of a project first announced by Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn in 1993. After the project languished for a few years, Thomas J. Flatley spearheaded its revitalization in 1996. The committee selected sculptor Robert Shure to create the memorial in 1997. The statues represent the transformation from an 'anxious immigrant' to a 'future of freedom and opportunity' in America. The sculptures are accompanied by eight narrative plaques.

The memorial lies on Boston's Freedom Trail across from the Old South Meeting House and is visited by more than 3 million people per year. While it received immediate praise in 1998, it has faced criticism from art critics who called it 'pious cliches and dead conventions' and 'the most mocked and reviled public sculpture in Boston'. In 2013, the site was described as a 'magnet for vagrants and pigeons'.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons

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