place

Ireland Park

Great Famine (Ireland) monuments and memorialsHarbourfront, TorontoIrish-Canadian culture in OntarioParks in Toronto
Cloudy (3400255343)
Cloudy (3400255343)

Ireland Park is located on the shores of Lake Ontario on Éireann Quay, adjoining the Canada Malting Silos, at the foot of Bathurst Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Officially opened in the summer of 2007, Ireland Park commemorates the tens of thousands who fled Ireland during the Great Famine. In 1847, over 38,000 Irish men, women and children landed at Rees's Wharf on the shores of Toronto, fleeing famine and eager to start a new life. Although Toronto only had approximately 20,000 residents at the time, the city welcomed the newcomers with open arms. Over 1,100 new immigrants did not survive to make Canada their new home, with many perishing in fever sheds during the Typhus epidemic of 1847. Ireland Park is a tribute to all the Irish ancestors who came with only hope, for a new life in a promising country. The park was designed to be an emotional and evocative place calling up long-lost memories of destitute ancestors who arrived from blight ravaged Ireland on our Canadian shore with hopes for a new life in a new land. The park was designed by Toronto Architect Jonathan Kearns, who is an Irish immigrant himself. The park features oak trees, a cylinder of stacked glass that serves as a beacon of hope and five bronze sculptures created by renowned Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie. The sculptures mirror a similar Famine Memorial in Dublin at the Custom House Quays. The figures in Dublin represent The Departure with Toronto's sculptures being The Arrival. The Hamilton Spectator described the work as follows: "The early immigrants are now honoured at the Toronto waterfront park by five haunting bronze statues created by Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie...One figure depicts a man lying on the ground, emaciated; another shows a pregnant woman clutching her bulging stomach, while behind her a meek child stands wide-eyed. One frail figure is bent over with hands clasped in prayer, contrasted by a man whose arms are extended to the sky in salvation." The park also features an imposing wall made exclusively of limestone imported from Kilkenny with has the names of those who died in 1847. The wall includes many of Toronto's citizens who gave their life to the Irish cause, including Bishop Michael Power.The park was officially opened during a ceremony on June 21, 2007, which featured the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Toronto Mayor David Miller, and the Chairman of the Ireland Park Foundation, Robert Kearns. Mary McAleese described the park as "a memorial that links Ireland and Canada in a very, very powerful way, and brings that story right into the 21st century."In 2009, a film entitled Death or Canada features Ireland Park and the dark story of 1847 and how it impacted the young city of Toronto. The Chairman of Ireland Park, Robert Kearns, is a featured contributor.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Ireland Park (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 43.634583333333 ° E -79.395833333333 °
placeShow on map

Address


Toronto
Ontario, Canada
mapOpen on Google Maps

Cloudy (3400255343)
Cloudy (3400255343)
Share experience

Nearby Places

545 Lake Shore Boulevard West
545 Lake Shore Boulevard West

545 Lake Shore Boulevard West is a former media studio complex located along the harbourfront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at the intersection of Bathurst Street and Lake Shore Boulevard West. The Art Deco building was designed by Toronto architects Chapman and Oxley, and was completed in 1927 as the Crosse and Blackwell Building for its namesake food products manufacturer. It has been listed as a heritage property by the City of Toronto's Heritage Preservation Services since 1973, and following restoration became the CFMT Building in 1979 to house Toronto multicultural television station CFMT-TV; it was joined by sister station CJMT-TV upon its launch in 2002. The two stations (now part of Omni Television under Rogers Media) moved to a new studio location at Yonge-Dundas Square (33 Dundas Street East) on October 19, 2009, although the Omni Television signage remained until August 2018 on the building. It was also the original home for YTV when the service began its operations on September 1, 1988, with YTV moving out of the building, to 64 Jefferson Avenue, in the overnight hours between November 12 & 13, 1990.Until recently the building housed the offices and on-air operations for Rogers Media. The building has never housed the main studios of Citytv Toronto, despite featuring Citytv signage on its exterior, but did house the master controls for the station. Sportsnet is based at the Rogers Building located at Jarvis Street and Bloor Street, where most of the Rogers-owned operations such as its other Toronto radio stations are based. The Shopping Channel is also based at a separate studio in Mississauga. On April 13, 2017, it was announced that Rogers had sold the property to developer Canderel.

Canoe Landing Park
Canoe Landing Park

Canoe Landing Park is an 8 acres (3.2 ha) privately funded urban park in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, adjacent to the Gardiner Expressway in the CityPlace neighbourhood. The name was chosen as part of a city-run contest and the final name was announced on the t.o.night free evening commuter paper. Formerly, it was tentatively known as CityPlace Park. The park's ribbon cutting ceremony was on September 9, 2009. The Park was designed by Landscape Architects Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg of Vancouver in collaboration with Landscape Architects, The Planning Partnership of Toronto, Public Art Consultant Karen Mills and Douglas Coupland. The park incorporates integrated artwork in the form of a landform (the bluff) and stand alone art pieces by Douglas Coupland: a canoe large enough for people to stand in and see over the Gardiner to Lake Ontario, a colourful display of large fishing bobbers, a sculptural beaver dam, programmed tree lighting (which will be more evident as the trees fill out), a pair of "iceberg benches" situated near the canoe, the "heart-shaped stone" bronze artwork which was cast from a stone retrieved by Terry's brother at the end of his journey and a one-mile run called the Terry Fox Miracle Mile. The developers of Concord CityPlace are Concord Adex Developments. On the advice of their consultant, Karen Mills, Concord approached Douglas Coupland, the Vancouver author, artist and sculptor. Some of Douglas Coupland's other recent Toronto projects include Super Nova, a sculptural work/clock tower in North York (at the Don Mills Centre) and "Monument to the War of 1812," situated on Fleet and Bathurst street corner (just south of Old Fort York). The canoe promontory was created as part of a proposed "earthwork" identified in the public art masterplan for Concord CityPlace (Public Art Management, Karen Mills, 1999) and was made from on site excavated fill and geosynthetic reinforcements. The hill has an elevation that allows viewers to see over the Gardiner Expressway to Lake Ontario. Some 20,000-25,000 dumptruck loads of fill were diverted from landfills.