Published in The Boston Globe

By Sarah Downey

CHICAGO -- In a city that dyes its namesake river green on St. Patrick's Day, support for a Chicago Irish Memorial has dried up.

Irish-Americans nationwide made plans in the 1990s to memorialize the 150th anniversary of the famine that drove Irish immigration to North America. But in Chicago, the mission to build a four-story monument across the street from the venerable Holy Name Cathedral did not advance beyond the creation of a 50-inch model.

"They built Holy Name Cathedral on nickels and dimes, for God's sake, we should be able to raise the money to have an Irish memorial in Chicago," said Mary Johnson, a teacher of religion and early supporter of the project.

Holy Name, one of the largest Catholic churches in Chicago, was built by the Irish who flooded the city in the wake of the "Great Hunger." From 1845 to 1851, more than 1 million Irish died and about 3 million more were forced to emigrate.

Activists have trouble putting their finger on exactly what went wrong with the project in Chicago, home to dozens of Irish organizations, a large Irish heritage center, and many Irish politicians.

"We have a lot of Chicago Irish. It's sort of a mystery, said Matt Lamb, who was chosen in 1999 to be one of two artists to design the memorial after Lamb met with Pope John Paul II and displayed his work at the Vatican. "There was a program around the world to get this done. There were these things going up all over."

Boston's $1 million Irish Famine Memorial Park opened in June 1998. New York unveiled its $5 million installation in Battery Park in July 2002. A $3 million rendition opened in October 2003 along Philadelphia's waterfront.

Irish groups in Chicago began exploring memorial possibilities about 1994. As Tom Boyle, the vice president of the Irish-American Heritage Center, which fills a former junior college on the city's Northwest Side, said, "There was a lot of interest in the 150th anniversary of the famine." Including from city employees and Mayor Richard M. Daley, the latest in a long line of Chicago mayors with ancestors from Ireland.

A group called the An Gorta Mor (Great Hunger in Gaelic) Education and Commemoration Committee eventually led the effort to raise $1 million for the Chicago Irish Memorial. Group members met with city officials, including Daley, about the project in 1999.

An Gorta Mor sponsored its first "mass of remembrance and recognition" at Holy Name Cathedral Nov. 14, 1999, collecting groceries for food pantries and funds for the memorial from more than 1,000 people. It included a parade of Irish dancers, Bishop Edwin M. Conway, and former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn.

"They came, they danced, they passed the plate," said S. Thomas Scarff, the other artist commissioned for the project. By then, Scarff said, he'd completed the 50-inch rendering, which is modeled on a theme of "Despair, Hope, and Triumph," and sculpted to look like the sail of the ships that brought many Irish to America. The finished product was to be 46 feet tall, crafted mainly from granite and bronze.

At the second remembrance Mass, held Nov. 12, 2000, the program noted, "While our journey has been an uphill one, at times meeting resistance and disbelief from pessimists, we have endured and are not only proceeding with our goals but also making history." Yet the few thousand dollars raised didn't come close to projections, covering little more than An Gorta printing expenses and costs associated with Masses and receptions.

With support declining, in August 2001, Rev. Robert McLaughlin, the Holy Name pastor who had helped secure funding for the memorial, left his position after 12 years in the job. Some said that Holy Name no longer backed the project.

"It was just a good idea that fell off the radar screen," said Colleen Dolan, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Archdiocese.

At the same time, a Chicago police officer who chaired An Gorta Mor became overwhelmed with the work. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

Scarff's 50-inch rendering is displayed at Purdue University North Central in Westville, Ind., where he is a curator. On the wall behind it is a large painting, also by Scarff, that depicts what he still hopes will be the finished product.

Johnson, who said she helped pay for one remembrance Mass, was recently inspired anew during a walk past New York's counterpart in Battery Park. She said she and others believe Chicago's will soon find its place.

"I know there's still interest," she said. "We have great talent, and we can have an Irish memorial in the City of Chicago."