Honoring Irish refugees who died on Deer Island

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Honoring Irish refugees who died on Deer Island
During the Great Hunger in Ireland between 1845 and 1852, more than a million people died of starvation and related diseases, and more than 2 million emigrated to the United States, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.
Many weakened by disease died on ships en route to their destination. In 1848 and 1849, so many were sick and dying when they arrived in Boston that city officials established a quarantine station on Deer Island in Boston Harbor, mandating that all incoming ships disembark ill passengers there. About 1,000 Irish men, women, and children died on the island; about 850 were buried in an unmarked grave.

Now, some 160 years later, a committee is raising funds for a memorial on Deer Island, saying it would bestow dignity and reverence to the memory of the Irish immigrants who are buried there. The memorial's proposed site, on the very tip of the island's eastern end, can be seen from almost every point along the harbor's edge.
A $50,000 grant has been approved by the city's Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund, and a fund for the rest of the estimated $300,000 cost has been set up at the UrbanArts Institute of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
The memorial, designed by sculptor Ted Clausen of Cambridge, will feature a 28-foot-high, twin-faced, granite Celtic cross, and 32 granite standing stones, one for each of Ireland's counties.
The effort is being cochaired by Duxbury residents Bill and Rita O'Connell.
'It's important,' Rita O'Connell said, 'we don't forget the stories of people such as Patrick J. McCarthy, who lost his mother, father, and six siblings on Deer Island but went on to graduate from Harvard and become mayor of Providence.'

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Summer of Sorrow, an upcoming 2 part documentary series looks at more Irish who died in Canada.

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Honoring Irish refugees who died on Deer Island

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