President McAleese today thanked the people of Toronto for opening their arms to 38,000 downtrodden Irish Famine refugees fleeing to the city more than 160 years ago.
Mrs McAleese officially opened Ireland Park- a memorial to hundreds who died from hunger and typhoid on the shores of Lake Ontario between May and October 1847.
Haunting sculptures, which include a pregnant peasant woman, accompany a 25-metre wall inscribed with 1,100 names of victims.
The President also visited famine graves in St Paul's Catholic School and St James' Anglican Cemetery in Toronto.
She said she had previously unveiled monuments to famine victims in Dublin, New York, Quebec and Sydney. "It is almost impossible for a prosperous and free generation to get their heads around the sheer scale of the massive personal loss and Irish national loss caused by the Famine. Yet we can still get our hearts around it and that is a very reassuring thing," she said.
"And here in Toronto a generous and caring generation has honoured those tragic, forgotten souls and that dark period in Ireland's history with a magnificent, moving memorial that gives respect, real respect to their lives and their sacrifice."
Mrs McAleese said the location of the park was stunning, the sculptures were haunting and the landscape design was elegantly stark.
"Together they create a space of profound sensitivity and reverence in tribute to those convulsive times that changed the story of Ireland, Canada and Toronto, over a century and a half ago."
The President thanked Mayor of Toronto David Miller on behalf of the Irish people for the selfless concern of his city for their tragic ancestors.
"These links hold Ireland and Toronto in a friendship that is in fact a kinship for, as a result of Toronto's great goodness, many famine Irish survived to build new lives in Canada and the United States."
Mrs McAleese said so many members of her own family emigrated to Canada that "I can safely say I am probably related to one in three people in Halifax."
She said that Ireland and Canada are today two of the world's most prosperous nations but also leading donor countries to the Third World. She added: "Here the most overlooked, forgotten and neglected of the world's 19th century poor have been restored to memory, not simply so we will moved to tears but that we will also be moved to action."
Irish Ambassador to Canada, Declan Kelly also attended the opening and The Celtic Tenors performed. Live music events included a performance by the 140-member Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. The sculptures were created by Co Dublin sculptor Rowan Gillespie, who is also responsible for the Famine Memorial statues on Custom House Quay in Dublin. Funds for the project were raised by many groups including the Ireland Fund of Canada.
Toronto City Council granted permission for Ireland Park in July 2000. Mr McAleese was also guest of honour at a business lunch hosted by Enterprise Ireland and the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce and at an Irish community reception and attended an Ireland Fund of Canada Gala Dinner at the Royal Ontario Museum. She paid her first state visit to Canada in October 1998.