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March 15, 2018
Christina Gray
St. Brendan parishioner John O’Riordan’s years-long mission to build a San Francisco memorial to the victims of the Irish Famine earned the unqualified support from mayoral candidates during a mayoral forum at the Irish Cultural Center Feb. 28.
Former state Sen. Mark Leno, supervisors London Breed and Jane Kim and former supervisor Angela Alioto expressed support for the permanent memorial to honor the 1.5 million Irish men, women and children who died in “The Great Hunger” in Ireland in the 1840s and 1850s. The famine led to the emigration of millions more.
“We have been working behind the scenes for the past couple of years explaining the need for a memorial to public representatives,” said O’Riordan, who emigrated from Ireland in the 1990s and lives with his wife Paola and their two children in San Francisco’s Sunset District. “We are grateful that our mayoral candidates are now in a position to publicly proclaim support for the memorial within San Francisco.”
Leno said that the memorial, a project of the Irish Famine Memorial Committee created with the support of a coalition of Irish organizations and individuals in San Francisco, is “long overdue” and will serve as a “message of recognition for those who suffered the poverty of the famine in Ireland but also recognize those that escaped oppression and prospered in the United States.”
O’Riordan said the memorial to the victims and survivors of the Irish Famine will recognize the millions of Californians and San Franciscans who trace their Irish heritage to those who died or survived the famine. “There are in fact more people in San Francisco who can trace themselves back to the Irish famine than to the American Revolution,” he said.
The barrier to progress on the project has centered on finding an appropriate location within city boundaries. Leno suggested Golden Gate Park for the memorial while suggested the waterfront.
Breed promised her support for the project as mayor, noting the Irish immigrant community’s resilience in escaping the famine only to meet discrimination in America with signs on local businesses reading: “No Irish Need Apply.”
Supervisor Kim, who is of Korean descent, said she feels a kindred spirit with the Irish and supports the memorial. “While I am not Irish, the Koreans are the ‘Irish of Asia’,” she said, adding that Koreans were denied ownership of the land where they grew up during Japanese colonization.
Visit the San Francisco Irish Famine Memorial Committee on Facebook.com/IrishMemorialSF.