Damage from water leaks to the Irish Hunger Memorial in New York is forcing city officials to rebuild it a cost of $5.385 million (€4.9 million), more than it originally cost to construct.
The memorial, on a half-acre of Battery Park in lower Manhattan, has been beset by problems since the $5 million project dedicated to the Great Irish Famine was opened by President Mary McAleese in 2002.
Battery Park City Authority, the municipal body responsible for the memorial, voted at a meeting of its board last week to hire a contractor to rebuild it.
Gwen Dawson, the authority’s vice-president of real property, told the December 4th meeting that repair works carried out less than a year after the memorial opened “did not work” and a major reconstruction was needed.
Stains and cracking
“The water infiltration issues have worsened over time. There are some stains and cracking that developed throughout the memorial structure,” she told the board.
Testing revealed no signs of material structural damage but she said there was a “moderate to high risk of future corrosion” to the structure.
An 1820s cottage, dismantled and transported from Co Mayo, is the centrepiece of the memorial that overlooks the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - an entry point for many Irish immigrants who fled the Famine.
Rocks, plants and soil from the Republic’s 26 counties lying over the memorial must be removed to allow builders to install new waterproofing before the landscaping can be reinstalled.
‘We have to rebuild the thing’
“What it boils down to is we have to rebuild the thing,” said Battery Park City Authority chairman Dennis Mehiel at last week’s meeting.
Another board member, Hector Batista, questioned whether the memorial was needed. “It seems like a money pit,” he said.
Mr Mehiel said the authority considered “for a nanosecond” the possibility of removing it, and then dismissed the idea.
“This is of some significance to the community, to New York, to the Irish-American community,” he said.
“We have other museums, there is a Jewish museum so, you know, we want to keep it. It serves a purpose. It has a value in the community.”
Robin Forst, a spokeswoman for the authority, said construction would start on the memorial in February and that it would reopen in November 2016.
