Manhattan Turns Emerald on St. Pat's Day
N E W Y O R K, March 1 -- Manhattan: the other Emerald Isle.
Yes, it's a long, long way from Tipperary. No, St. Patrick neverdrove the snakes out of Times Square. But every March, a touch ofIreland descends across Manhattan, converting it into Dublin on theHudson.
From the top of the Empire State Building, swathed in Gaelicgreen light for St. Patrick's Day, to the bottom of Manhattan,where the Irish Hunger Memorial recalls the deadly famine, Marcharrives in New York like a lion and leaves like an Irish lamb stew.
The Hunger Memorial, dedicated two years ago to the 1 millionIrish victims of the 1845-52 famine, sits on Vesey Street in lowerManhattan between the Hudson River and the site of the World TradeCenter terrorist attack.
A Tiny Piece of Land
The stark, spare site recreates the Irish countryside, with itsgently sloping hills and stones collected from all 32 counties inIreland — including a single gravestone marked with a Celtic cross.Visitors walk into a ruined fieldstone cottage imported from CountyMayo.
Looking south from its top is the view that greeted millions ofIrish immigrants in New York Harbor: Ellis Island, flanked by theStatue of Liberty.
The memorial occupies a historically significant one-quarter ofan acre. In 1847, British law stipulated that no Irishman occupyingland larger than that size was entitled to assistance in the faceof the killer crop failure.
"The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the Englishcreated the famine," reads one of the quotes on the memorial'sside.
The mood is much brighter at McSorley's Old Ale House, an EastVillage landmark since 1854. You won't find a lot of tourists atthe East Seventh Street bar, and there's good reason for that.
"It's very hard to get an ale-drinking tourist trap," explainsowner Matty Maher, himself a native of County Kilkenny.
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