High Cross for Portland, Oregon
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Rose Red
N 45° 31.133 W 122° 44.035
10T E 520781 N 5040628
The 14 feet tall Oregon Irish Famine Memorial is located at Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery on W. Burnside Road. Irish sculptor Brendan McGloin, 39, modeled the memorial on The Cross of the Scriptures, one of Ireland's most iconic sculptures.
Waymark Code: WM5CMA
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 12/18/2008
Views: 26
The Oregon Irish Famine Memorial is located at Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery on W. Burnside Road. It was dedicated during a snowstorm on Saturday, December 13, 2008. Irish sculptor Brendan McGloin, 39, modeled the memorial on The Cross of the Scriptures, one of Ireland's most iconic sculptures, located at Clonmacnoise, County Offaly. McGloin spent three years carving the three-piece project.
The 7 ton, 14-feet-tall memorial is made of sandstone, Irish limestone base, and concrete foundation. The concrete foundation holds a stone from the Hill of Tara, seat of the historic High Kings of Ireland, to commemorate the past; a euro for the present; and a stone from County Mayo on April 10, the day the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998, represents Ireland’s future. The memorial, honoring Ireland’s most miserable of times: An Gorta Mor, the Great Famine, was organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Portland.
More than one million Irish starved during the 1845-51 potato blight and political debacle and 1.3 million more fled, mostly to the United States. In 1850, 1 percent of the city population was Irish. Ten years later, that figure had jumped to 10 percent and would dominate the immigrant stream for decades. The Famine Irish who came to Portland lay buried at Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery.
The photograph of the original high cross of Clonmacnoise was taken by David O'Longaugh. It appeared in the Living Section of "The Oregonian," Saturday, June 9, 2007.
Instructions for logging waymark: A photograph is required of you (or your GPS receiver, if you are Waymarking solo) and the Oregon Irish Famine Memorial.
Website with background information about this Waymark: [Web Link]
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