A patch of green space by the waterfront in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is home to Ireland Park, a tribute to the Irish immigrants who left the Emerald Isle in 1847 and arrived in Toronto that summer. Ireland’s President, Mary McAleese, opened the park on June 21, 2007.
The History Behind Ireland Park
The Hon. William H. Boulton, Toronto’s mayor in 1847, had been aware of the immigration to come. City council formed a Board of Public Health early in the year, and Dominic J. Daly, the provincial secretary, instructed Boulton to build sheds and hospitals for the immigrants, with a vow to reimburse him from the province’s coffers.
Alderman George Gurnett took the helm of the Toronto Board of Health, and with his associates co-ordinated the relief efforts, which included medical care, the building and provisioning of “emigrant sheds,” and the processing of migrants as they arrived at Reese’s Wharf.
More than 38,000 immigrants landed on Toronto’s shores, when the city’s population was just 20,000. More than 1,100 of those people died upon arrival.
The Location of Ireland Park
Despite being tucked away behind the Canada Malting Company grain elevators, Ireland Park has quietly become a Toronto attraction. It’s a short walk south from the Lakeshore streetcar’s Bathurst stop.
The park, on the southeast corner of Bathurst Quay — now also deemed Eireann Quay — away from the hustle and bustle of the busy Lakeshore, however, is appropriate to the memorial. While boats can sail past the park and airplanes fly into Toronto Island Airport nearby, the relative quiet of the area promotes a sense of reflection.
The park’s location is also historically significant. It’s just west of Reese’s Wharf, where the immigrants landed, and just south of where the fever sheds, which housed the sick, were located at Front and Bathurst Streets. It's open year-round, and admission is free.
The Granite Slabs and Sculptures of Ireland Park
On the north side of the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, are seven sculptures looking out to sea, symbolic of the immigrants leaving the famine-stricken land in search of a new place to call home. These famine figures, collectively titled “The Departure,” are the work of artist Rowan Gillespie. He completed the work to mark the 150th anniversary of the famine. Gillespie was commissioned to create similar sculptures for Ireland Park, titled “The Arrival,” thereby linking the two countries.
”The Arrival” features five bronze and life-size figures: an orphan boy, a pregnant woman, an apprehensive-looking man, a figure crumpled on the ground, and a more joyful man, arms outstretched toward the CN Tower in downtown Toronto.
Visitors may find coins — including Irish euro coins — resting in the palm or back pocket of the sculptures, as well as flowers, placed there by previous visitors.
Near the figures, inscribed on slabs of Kilkenny limestone, are the names of 675 of the 1,100 immigrants who did not survive.
The Effect of The Great Famine
The Great Famine of the mid-1800s had an impact not only in Ireland, which saw its citizens flee and population shrink, but also in Canada, where its citizens banded together to help and welcome the immigrants. Those who survived went on to not only create new lives for themselves, but to make contributions to Canada, as well.
Ireland Park in Toronto is a place that commemorates the individuals who were affected by the Great Famine and serves as a tap on the public's shoulders that says, "don't forget — starvation is rampant elsewhere today." The Ireland Park Foundation's website puts it eloquently: "The failure of a harvest is an act of nature. Starvation is the result of our failure to respond with generosity to those who are hungry in our world today."
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