The President, Mrs McAleese, will be guest of honour at today's dedication of the Irish Famine Memorial in Battery Park, New York.
The memorial, designed by a US sculptor, Brian Tolle, is a former Co Mayo stone cottage which has been reconstructed on the waterfront on a half-acre site in Battery Park.
The cottage, which dates from the 1830s, stood in the rural village of Carradoogan, Attymass, six miles from Ballina, until early last year.
It was dismantled by FÁS workers in Attymass in March last year and shipped to the US.
The reassembled structure now stands one block from where the World Trade Centre once stood.
The $5 million memorial park development by New York Battery City Authority aims to raise public awareness of the events that led to the Great Famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1852.
Two Carradoogan natives, Mr Tom and Mr Chris Slack, donated the cottage to the New York municipal authority after it ran an international competition seeking submissions from artists on an appropriate Irish famine memorial.
Tolle, who had spent some time in the deserted village in Achill, Co Mayo, suggested that the greatest impact of Famine on the Irish landscape was abandoned stone cottages.
His idea found favour with the Battery City group and led to a trip to Ireland to locate a suitable cottage which could be taken down and then reassembled in the United States.
The official dedication ceremony this morning will be followed by a celebration of Irish music, art and culture.
More than 100 Irish and US- based artists will perform during the event.