• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Irish America

Irish America

        • Who We Are
          • About Us
          • Irish America Team
        • The Lists
          • Business 100
          • Hall of Fame
          • Health and Life Sciences 50
          • Wall Street 50
        • Highlights
          • History
          • In This Issue
          • Music
          • Politics
          • Sports
          • Travel
        • Columns
          • First Word
          • Hibernia
          • Quote Unquote
          • Slainte
          • Those we Lost
          • What are you like?
          • Wild Irish Women
          • Window on The Past
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • About This Magazine
    • Irish America Team
  • In This Issue
  • Hall of Fame
  • The Lists
    • Business 100
    • Hall of Fame
    • Health and Life Sciences 50
    • Wall Street 50
  • Archives
    • Magazine
    • Highlights
  • Travel
  • Events

A Call to Remember

By Elizabeth Raggi, Contributor
August / September 2001

August 1, 2001 by Leave a Comment

Irish Famine Memorial sculpted by Glenna Goodacre..

The Irish Memorial in Philadelphia is one of many Famine memorials springing up across the United States. But how does one show that the one million dead were once living, breathing, loving, laughing humans? And how does one move from the tragedy to the promise of new life that America offered?

Sculptor Glenna Goodacre is no novice to daunting tasks. Her ability to capture both light and tragic moments so poignantly has made her one of the world’s most renowned sculptors. Most notable is her Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 2000 Goodacre’s rendering of a Shoshone teenager with her infant son was selected to grace the new dollar coin.

The Irish Memorial, which Goodacre devoted herself to for one full year, is now complete in its clay form and awaiting its casting in bronze.

Goodacre, who usually works on three or four sculptures at a time, admits, “It was much more time-consuming than I imagined.” Goodacre, 61, who completed the work in her New Mexico studio, said the largest difficulty with the piece was knowing when a figure was complete. “You never know when to stop on a figure. I want people to look at the emotion in a face.”

  • Glenna Goodacre with her works in progress.
  • Detail of the Irish Memorial.

The artist traveled to Ireland for research and was profoundly moved by the graphic images in the museum at Cobh. She used period paintings from the National Gallery as models for the faces in her work. Back in New Mexico, Goodacre found body models, using a woman “so pathetically thin you could see her bones through her skin.” For authenticity she would “grab any Irish person [she] came across.” Irish actors on tour from London and a soccer player all posed for her.

The wedge-shaped work is approximately 30 feet long, 14 feet wide, and 12 feet high. The sculpture was originally intended to have 25 life-size impressionistic figures in period dress, but the number now stands at 35, some as tall as 6’2″, others small babies. On the east side of the sculpture is the suggestion of a landscape: there stand the Celtic Crosses and there lie the starving. As the viewer’s eyes move west along the sculpture, it begins to rise into a representation of a ship bearing the anguished immigrants. At the west and highest end of the sculpture, moving the scene from one of despair to promise, these immigrants step off the ship and into new lives welcomed by an Irishman already there.

  • Sketch of Irish Famine Memorial in Philadelphia.

The memorial, which was the inspiration of the late Philadelphia historian Dennis Clark, will be installed in September 2002 within sight of the Philadelphia waterfront. The effort is backed by Irish American organizations intent on raising $2.1 million for the memorial and the 1.75-acre surrounding park. The site will provide an educational walk with stanchions bearing facts on the Famine and the Irish Diaspora in the United States. Also to be inscribed at the memorial site is a poem by Banished Children of Eve author Peter Quinn, entitled “Remembrance.”

Of her sculpture, Goodacre said, “I wanted to make a piece that people will stop and study and remember, [to] learn about this starvation.”

A PBS documentary of Glenna Goodacre’s work will air shortly after the Famine Memorial’s unveiling. ♦

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Highlights

News
Articles and stories from Irish America.....
MORE

Hibernia
News from Ireland and happenings in Irish America.....
MORE

Those We Lost
Remembering some of the great Irish Americans who have passed.....
MORE

Slainte!
Discover Irish ancestry, predilections, and recipes.....
MORE

Photo Album
Irish America readers share the stories of their ancestors....
MORE

More Articles

  • Niall O'Dowd with Loretta Brennan Glucksman (center), co-chair of the Glucksman Ireland House at NYU, and Niall's wife Debbie McGoldrick, the Editor of the Irish Voice at the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner on March 16. Photo courtesy John Sanderson/AnnieWatt.comHow the Irish Famine Changed American History
    Niall O'Dowd, Irish America's publisher, was the guest of honor at the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick...
  • <b>Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic</b>Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic
    She says she's jetlagged, that her head feels as if an arrow is piercing both temples, but Fiona Sha...
  • <b>Moores Creek Bridge: A small battle with huge implications</b>Moores Creek Bridge: A small battle with huge implications
    Small bands of Patriots and Loyalists who fought with fierce devotion were formed during the early ...
  • <b>Mick Moloney Remembered at Irish Arts Center</b>Mick Moloney Remembered at Irish Arts Center
    Mick Moloney, a legend in the history of Irish music, who passed away suddenly on July 30, 2022, wil...

Footer

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe

  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Newsletter
  • Customer Service

Additional

  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · IrishAmerica Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in