At Home and Abroad

Michael McBane Historian Michael McBane tell of a modest monument that was unveiled on June 14th in Macdonald Gardens Park in the neighbourhood of Lower Town, to represent the Irish Famine victims, many of whom perished after landing in Ottawa. The monument consists of a pair of children’s shoe to scale, cast in bronze along with a plaque with a QR code to explain the tragic story of the Irish Famine Victims of 1847 who are buried within what is now a city park with a heritage designation. Ottawa’s commemorative site of MacDonald Gardens Park, off Rideau and Cobourg Streets is a fitting place for this small monument because it is the former cemetery holding the remains of more than 300 famine victims. The remains of these victims were buried in a mass grave with no individual markers. This lack of recognition reflected the low status of these Irish refugees at this time.