On Tuesday May 14th at the Built Heritage Committee meeting, the motion I put forward at the last City Council meeting on the Irish Famine Grave Monument at Macdonald Gardens Park, will be considered. The monument is a small pair of bronze shoes that is a part of an international trail of Irish famine victims. The placement of the monument is up for discussion. The reasoning for the request to have this monument in Macdonald Gardens Park as this is the former Catholic graveyard that contains the remains of some three hundred victims of the Great Irish Famine 1845-1851. They were among the thousands of Famine refugees who arrived in Bytown in the summer of 1847, malnourished and often suffering from typhus.
The Irish Ambassador to Canada Eamonn McKee, launched the Global Irish Famine Way on Thursday in St. John’s Newfoundland. The trail notes Irish emigration and will be marked with pairs of bronze shoes.
Residents are welcome to register to speak to this item at the Committee meeting on May 14th. T0 do so please contact the Committee Coordinator, Mélanie Blais. She can be reached either by telephone: (613) 580-2424, ext. 27005 or by email: melanie.blais@ottawa.ca
The deadline to register by phone to speak, or submit written comments or visual presentations is 4 pm on May 13, and the deadline to register by email to speak is 8:30 am on May 14.
At committee, each registered delegate will have 5 minutes to address the members of the committee. Delegates cannot ask any direct questions to committee members or staff, but can provide comments/thoughts on the item they have asked to speak to. Committee members may ask questions of the delegate, should they wish.
You can choose to participate either online or in person.
Should you wish to attend in person, the meeting takes placed in the Champlain Room, 110 Laurier Avenue West.
