February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The park is a swath of green and lake water on the county’s western edge that has long been known as the western portion V.E. Macy Park, named after V. Everit Macy, a wealthy Westchester landowner of a century ago.
It is sandwiched between the New York State Thruway and the Saw Mill River Parkway and straddles the villages of Irvington and Ardsley. The other section of Macy Park remains of the eastern side of the thruway.
Last Wednesday, the newly dedicated park was the gathering place for a large crowd of Westchester politicians, officials and Irish community activists from both the county and neighboring New York City.
And as was the case almost three years to the day since the memorial was unveiled, bright sunshine and birdsong lightened the tenor of an event that drew heavily for its theme not only on the darkest days of Ireland’s history, but also the continuing tragedy that is hunger in today’s world.
The idea of dedicating the park to the Great Hunger was the dream of Westchester resident James Houlihan, a real estate company owner who spearheaded the earlier fundraising for the stone and bronze memorial designed by Dublin Sculptor Eamonn O’Doherty.
O’Doherty was due to attend the dedication of the park but was unable to travel due to illness.
He was presented with a plaque and medal in his absence by Westchester County Executive Andy Spano.
Spano, who was strongly supportive of the memorial project from design to completion, said that the sight of the memorial would have swelled the hearts of the Famine-era Irish who came to Westchester County in search of a new life in the 1840s.
Hunger, Spano said, not only occurred as a result of natural causes, but because it was used as a weapon, or was the result of government policy.
Ireland’s Consul General in New York, Eugene Hutchinson, told those in attendance — including former Rep. Mario Biaggi and two former New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade grand marshals, Brother Charles Quinn of Iona College and retired NYPD Det. Barney Ferguson — that the dedication ceremony reflected the pride that so many Irish Americans in Westchester County had for their heritage.
The new park and its memorial, said Hutchinson, also reflected, “in a poignant and lasting way,” the memory of the Great Hunger.
The Great Hunger, said Hutchinson, was a “massive fault line” in the history of Ireland. It had changed Ireland’s future and had left a very heavy shadow on Ireland’s psychological landscape.
The park and its memorial, which was both provocative and inspiring, would ensure that the tragedy of that time would not be forgotten.
“The memorial here is an enduring statement on the need for human solidarity,” Hutchinson said.
The Irish, Hutchinson said, had blossomed in Westchester. He drew comparison between this historical success and the changes in modern Ireland, which itself was now a land of opportunity.
Houlihan said he wanted to thank the hundreds of volunteers who had made the memorial and park possible and in particular County Executive Spano, who had first suggested the site for the memorial.
Houlihan said it was the intention of those who had worked for the memorial not only to create good public art, but also “to memorialize the people who had come before us.”
Houlihan was presented during the ceremony with a special Westchester County medal that had been struck in his honor.
A county legislator, Lou Mosiello, said if it were not for Houlihan’s “tenacity” there would have been no memorial at all, while Bill Ryan, chairman of the County Board of Legislators, thanked Houlihan for his “vision and leadership.”
Music at the ceremony was provided by the pipes and drum of the Westchester Police Emerald society, while Jacinta O’Mahoney used the backdrop of the memorial to sing a song of emigration, “The Waves.”
Eamonn O’Doherty’s widely praised work depicts a five-member Famine-era family leaving the ruins of their cottage.
The family faces toward America, but one member is glancing back to their home, which is depicted by opposing gable end stone walls.
A fallen wicker basket, or creel, just to the rear of the walls is full of potatoes, but in a symbolic portrayal of the potato blight that first struck widely in 1845, the potatoes turn into human skulls as they tumble onto the ground.
The new park is evident to drivers along the Saw Mill by means of a large sign at the entrance. It reads: “Great Hunger Memorial Park at V.E. Macy.”