Some years ago, on a chilly March day, I paid a visit to Toronto’s Ireland Park. As an Irishman who had made his home in Canada, I was interested in the experience of past generations of Irish immigrants. But the park wasn’t easy to find. Walled off from the city by old Canada Malting silos, it is a tiny patch of grass alongside Lake Ontario. Snow dusted the frozen ground; a bitter wind cut across the water. The place was deserted — a raw, lonely spot that seemed to capture the alienation of stepping onto an unknown shore.
Ireland Park commemorates victims of the Great Famine who arrived in Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. Five bronze figures, ragged and emaciated, seem to stagger toward their future. A pregnant woman clutches her belly; another figure has collapsed on the ground; a gaunt man, arms raised, faces the CN Tower and the gleaming skyscrapers of Bay Street. Here is a universal story of refugees: desperation alongside hope.
The failure of...
David Dunne is an Irish Canadian author whose titles include Design Thinking at Work. He is currently writing a book about the Irish border region.
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