On November 11th I was able to check another item off of my bucket list. The Irish Famine Memorial. I had seen it in the movie P.S. I Love You. There was a scene between Hilary Swank and Harry Connick, Jr. where they are standing in this beautiful expanse of space and they are eating corned beef sandwiches. Connick eludes to the fact that it is a little morbid for them to be eating at a Famine Memorial and Swank answers that it was to honor the dead.
Using mapquest to determine where we needed to go was an erroneous judgment call as it put us on the wrong side of Ground Zero. After much navigation we made our way to the Memorial.
On our way there (due to it being Veteran’s Day) we were able to walk through a street fair. There, I picked up some really great finger puppets. These not only entertained my simple mind, they also kept my fingers warm:
I am only saddened by the fact that I did not get seven more to have a complete set. I will watch at the street fairs to come, hopefully…
The thing that is amazing is that you turn a corner between high rises and you then stumble upon this amazing little place.
Jane Holtz Kay put together a nice well rounded piece on the Memorial. Click here to read it.
I have to say that walking within the Memorial you definitely could conjure up images of Ireland. The stones used, the color of the greenery…it is all like I would imagine walking through a field in Ireland would be. I wish it could be larger. Looking out across the river, it was beautiful. It was a little chilly the day we went. I definitely want to go back in the spring when the flowers are in bloom. I believe it would have to be truly beautiful.
In the interim, here are some photos from the adventure:
Thoughts and Ponderances 
This would be something I would enjoy visiting. There is a nice ‘focusing of thought’ that occurs when you go to these places. Although they are not mystical in themselves, their singular purpose tends to alter your feelings when you visit them. One of the most surrealistic ones I have been to is the Korean War Memorial on the mall (not the Vietnam – although that one is important as well. I saw the Korean memorial on a foggy morning. You could not make out what was beyond the perimeter of the memorial and you were suddenly hit with how frightening it would be to patrol in a war zone, not knowing what was 50 yards ahead.