SeeDowntown

Irish Famine Memorial

Two statues commemorate the 1845 Irish Famine, depicting a starving Irish family on their knees, and a well fed family walking away. The natural rise of the land here is used to great effect by the sculptor. As you walk up or down from the statues, it's easy to empathize with the predicament of either family. The physical pain of starvation and the emotional pain of leaving loved ones behind are each masterfully rendered in bronze.

Address: Washington and School St
Getting there: T: Downtown Crossing
Hours: 24 hours daily
Price: Free

Directions Suggest a nearby place

Listing from Wikivoyage: Boston/Downtown, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

Close by

SeeDowntown
Old South Meeting House
Built in 1729, this church has been an important meeting place for centuries. Famous today due to events during 1773, when colonists used the space to organize what would become known as the Boston Tea Party. Almost destroyed by the fire of 1872, Bostonians saved the structure and it's now an important stop on the Freedom Trail.
Apr-Oct: 9:30AM-5PM, Nov-Mar: 10AM-4PM$6 for adults, $5 age 62+, $5 students with ID, $1 age 5-17
BuyDowntown
Commonwealth Books
Fantastic bookstore downtown selling antique, rare, used, and new tomes. Particular emphasis on subjects like: the arts, architecture, history, literature, philosophy, and religion. You can also find other exclusive treasures here, like old maps, engravings, and manuscripts. Even just walking down this street and looking around is an experience.
Mon-Sat 10AM-7PM, Sun 11AM-5PM
SeeDowntown
Spring Lane
Get off the Freedom Trail for a second and spend a minute reading plaques in this narrow alley. Beneath your feet once flowed clean spring water used by the residents of Boston for hundreds of years. The lane runs parallel to Water Street so you know it's for real. Several other notes relating to Boston's history adorn adjacent building walls, if you're interested. Use caution during the evening, however, as the homeless sometimes use this semi-protected area as a campsite.
24 hours dailyFree
DrinkDowntown
Ogawa Coffee
First U.S. location of an upscale Japanese coffee chain.
Mon-Fri 7AM-6PM, Sat Sun 10AM-6PM