Between 1845 and 1852, successive failures of the potato crop, and the wholly inadequate response by the government, led to the death by starvation and disease of roughly one million people and forced another two million to emigrate. This catastrophe, An Gorta Mór - the Great Hunger - decimated families, emptied villages, and permanently altered the country’s history. The population of Ireland has still not fully returned to the numbers seen before the Famine. 

For many Irish, emigration was not a choice but a desperate act of survival. A significant number of those who emigrated found refuge in the United States, and many eventually made their way to California. Upon their arrival Irish immigrants played a major role in the building and shaping of San Francisco from the Gold Rush years to the present. They worked on its docks and construction sites, helped lay out its streets, taught school, provided social and healthcare services, organized unions, founded churches and schools, and contributed to civic life every decade since. Today, more than 2.3 million Californians claim Irish ancestry, and the Irish American community continues to contribute to the cultural, political, and economic life of the region.

The San Francisco Irish Famine Memorial is designed to honor both sides of this story: the unprecedented tragedy in Ireland and the remarkable resilience and contribution of those who survived and their descendants. It is, in the words of Consul General Micheál Smith, “not only a reminder of an unprecedented tragedy for Ireland but a monument of gratitude for the City of San Francisco and the State of California, who welcomed Irish people and connected them with opportunity upon their arrival.” Donors are helping to create a space where memory and gratitude, loss and hope, stand side by side.

The memorial’s location in Lincoln Park is central to what it represents. Overlooking the Golden Gate, with sweeping views that evoke the Irish coastline, the site speaks to the journey from a devastated homeland to a new beginning at the edge of the Pacific. It stands within sight of memorials to Holocaust victims and to the Chinese and Japanese experiences in the city, affirming that the Irish story belongs in the shared narrative of migration, hardship, and renewal that defines San Francisco.

For donors, this memorial is an opportunity to ensure that the story of the Great Hunger and the Irish in San Francisco is preserved and told with dignity for generations to come. It will be a place for descendants to honor their ancestors, for students to learn history, and for the broader community to connect past struggles with contemporary questions of migration and justice.