Boston Irish Famine Memorial

Between 1845 and 1850, the Great Famine devastated Ireland, bringing horrific suffering to its 8.5 million people as a fungus destroyed the potato crop that sustained poor families. More than one million died of starvation and disease, about two million emigrated to Boston and other North American cities, and those who remained endured poverty, eviction, and cultural loss. Half a million people were evicted, many died by the roadside, and emigrants fled on unsafe "Coffin Ships," with so many dying at sea that the Atlantic was called a "bowl of tears." In 1847 alone, 37,000 Irish refugees arrived in Boston impoverished, sick, and often unwelcome, settling in harsh conditions along the waterfront. Boston also sent aid: on March 27, 1847, the U.S.S. Jamestown sailed from Boston Harbor with 800 tons of food, supplies, and clothing and reached Cork Harbor fifteen days later. Despite hostility and discrimination, the Famine Irish in Boston rose from impoverished refugees to successful Americans, and the famine's legacy continued to shape Ireland, Boston, and the wider world.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States