REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE UNVEILING OF THE FAMINE MEMORIAL AT CALVARY CEMETERY, PORTLAND
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE UNVEILING OF THE FAMINE MEMORIAL AT CALVARY CEMETERY, PORTLAND, OREGON SATURDAY, 13 DEC
Dia dhíbh a chairde ar maidin. Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank for your warm reception on this chilly day in Portland.
Ninety-two years ago, one of my predecessors as President of Ireland, Eamon De Valera, stepped into the crisp fall air of a Portland day. He came from a very poor Ireland and he came at a time when Ireland’s long struggle for its freedom was coming to a significant climax. He came here seeking help and support in Ireland’s attempts to take her rightful place among the free and independent nations of the world. He came to Ireland’s great friend, the United States, the country that had welcomed so many waves of Irish emigrants.
It is an honour for me to follow in his historic footsteps, to come from a peaceful Ireland which has transcended both its poverty and the grim politics of colonialism. However, I also come from an Ireland which remembers the appalling pain it suffered during the Famine era, named more accurately by some the Great Starvation, when a million of our people died and two million more fled in desperation. The Famine ships bore many of them westwards to your shores, most settling along America’s Eastern rim, in New York and Boston. But there were those who travelled onwards and for them, Portland, Oregon became their adopted homeland and the home of their children and grandchildren.
Before the famine struck, just one per cent of Portland’s population was Irish-born; yet, ten years later, after many made the treacherous journey west, the Irish comprised ten percent of the city’s population, at that time becoming the city’s largest ethnic group. They brought with them their Irish spirit, tenacity, courage, faith and fidelity. They invested the very best of themselves in their adopted home and they never forgot where they came from or its suffering and, for many years to come, their hard-earned dollars and cents were sent back to an impoverished Ireland where they formed the bridge to a decent future that would take over a century to emerge.
This memorial showcases the spirit of the Irish community of Portland. The DNA is unmistakeable. And it is a huge credit to those who conceived the idea and then made it possible, namely the Ancient Order of the Hibernians and other members of Portland’s Irish community. Brendan McGloin lovingly crafted this magnificent cross in his workshop in Donegal. I know because I saw him at work there and his pride in this project was palpable.
The cross made its way to the Port of Dublin and sailed across the Atlantic just like waves of emigrants did for centuries. It headed west on board a train following the Irish down the Oregon Trail and now it has found its home at Mt. Calvary Cemetery among our famine dead, among Ireland’s dead many of whom would have given their all to see sucha familiar cross in their native land just once more.
The visionaries of this memorial did not strive to replicate a representation of the devastation caused by the famine or the tragedy of lives lost, but rather they wanted to provide visitors with a tangible image of the resilience of Ireland and its people.
Inspiration for this memorial was found at the ruins of the ancient Clonmacnoise monastic site, along the banks of the Shannon, in County Offaly, Ireland. Among those great ruins that remind us of the time when Ireland was the source of Europe’s education and enlightenment lies perhaps Ireland’s finest Celtic cross - the Cross of the Scriptures. Now its beautifully crafted twin stands here.
Produced in a timeless manner, using only handheld tools and blocks of stone, this replica of the original Cross of Scriptures captures the heart of what we commemorate today. The first Cross of Scriptures did not mark the remains of any great saint, or a king, or even a fallen Celtic warrior. Its sole purpose was to stand as an enduring symbol of the faith of the Irish in God and trust in their own future. Here in Oregon this memorial to the Irish Famine will speak for years to come of those Irish who came here with nothing but who planted here their faith and their trust and gave to Oregon the gift of their lives and their children’s lives and an enduring bond of kin and clan between Ireland and Oregon.
Before I close I wish to take this opportunity to extend my sincerest congratulation and good wishes to Archbishop John Vlazny as he and the people of Portland join him in celebrating the silver jubilee of his ordination as bishop. I believe that a special mass is planned followed by a reception. I’m sorry I can’t be here to join you. Enjoy every moment, you truly deserve it.
Go raibh maith agaibh.
Thank you.