"Setting foot on Irish soil in New York The Irish potato famine ("An Gorta Mor") is in the mid 1800s saw the migration of a million people to America following a blight destruction of potato crops in Ireland . Visitors to Battery Park City can appreciate the depth and beauty of Ireland (complete with original soil from Carradoogan from the parish of Attymass in County Mayo) if they visit the Irish Hunger Memorial memorial located on Vesey Street and North End Avenue. Haunting, exquisite and deeply moving in a raw agrarian way, the Memorial was designed by artist Brian Tolle and landscape architect Gail Wittwer-Laird. What I loved about the memorial is its quiet beauty. There are no ostentatious plaques or audio system; instead, the landscaped plot tells a story in and of itself, using stones, soil, native vegetation and an original cottage which belonged to the Irish Slack family which was deserted in the 1960s because of their move to the United States. Visitors can wander freely on the path at all hours of the day (there is no gate or entry times) and gaze at a peach-colored sunset settling into the skyscrapers. A powerful memorial located close to the World Trade Center and smack opposite to the Conrad Hilton in New York (my hotel room had a direct view), the memorial deepens your appreciation for the cultural and ethnic melting pot that is New York. By Charu Suri"