BOSTON IRISH FAMINE MEMORIAL, Proclamation by HON. JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEY, MARCH 17, 1999
HON. JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEY of massachusetts in the house of representatives Wednesday, March 17, 1999 CONGRESSIOAL RECORD Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, it is fitting that on the feast on St. Patrick I rise to pay tribute to the Irish community of Boston and Massachusetts for building a poignant memorial to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine. The Boston Irish Famine Memorial sits at the corner of Washington and School Streets, near Downtown Crossing, just a few blocks from where Famine Irish refugees originally settled in the 1840s. The memorial's place along the city's Freedom trail serves as a constant reminder of what the Irish and others sought when they braved oceans and continents to reach the United States of America. Ireland's Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1849, drove over 100,000 Irish refugees to the shores of Boston, where they arrived impoverished, sick, and traumatized by one of the great catastrophes of the 19th Century. Their rise from famin