Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today attended the opening of the new "Irish Hunger Memorial" in Battery Park City. The Memorial is aimed at raising awareness of the "Great Irish Famine and Migration" of 1845-1852 and highlights the problem of hunger worldwide. President of the Republic of Ireland Mary McAleese, Edward Cardinal Egan, Governor George E. Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, U.S. Representatives Sue Kelly, Jerrold Nadler, Vito Fossella and John Sweeney, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, Councilmen Alan J. Gerson and James Oddo, Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Chairman of Battery Park City Authority Jim Gill, and President of Battery Park City Authority Tim Carey, and Memorial Designer Brian Tolle joined in the dedication ceremony.

"This innovative memorial not only reminds us of the great Irish famine but also that millions of people around the world are suffering from hunger today," said Mayor Bloomberg. "This monument captures a great tragedy, incites us to eliminate hunger today and conveys the strong and enduring bonds that exist between the people of New York and Ireland. Battery Park City is a fitting home because of its long tradition of integrating art into its landscape and because of its proximity to the place where many of the hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants entered the New World."

Originally scheduled for March 2002, dedication of the Memorial, located a block away from the World Trade Center site, was delayed due to the events of September 11th. The memorial is located on a half-acre site near the corner of Vesey Street and North End Avenue in Battery Park City, overlooking Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The base of the structure is inscribed with the history of the famine and the Irish people. The Memorial includes a ruined fieldstone cottage imported from County Mayo and plantings of over 60 species of native Irish wildflowers, plants and grasses and has stones from each of Ireland's 32 counties. In addition, a resource center will be built across the street to educate the public on starvation around the world.

"The Great Hunger" began in 1845 when a blight destroyed the Irish potato crop, depriving Ireland of its staple food. By 1847 millions were starving and dying. Between 1847 and 1852 hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrated to New York where they arrived at South Street Seaport and Castle Clinton. Today, almost 800,000 New York City residents trace their ancestry to Ireland.

The Memorial is a $5 million capital project of the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority (BPCA). BPCA is a public benefit corporation that was created by the New York State Legislature in 1968 to develop a 92-acre landfill at the southwestern tip of Manhattan. Parcels of land are leased to private developers who build in accordance with BPCA guidelines. Battery Park City is home to 13 works of public art, in addition to The Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and the New York City Police Memorial.