In what some consider a break with tradition, the Cambridge Historical Commission last night endorsed a proposal to place a memorial to the Irish Potato Famine on the Cambridge Common.

"It's a great step in the right direction," said John T. O'Connor, coordinator of the Campaign for the Irish Famine Memorial, the organization supporting the monument.

"But the devil is in the details," he said, referring to the general wording of the commission's approval of the concept.

The mayor, the vice mayor, five other city council members and about 50 other supporters of various cultural backgrounds anticipated a showdown as they packed the small conference room in which the seven-member commission met.

The City Council had voted 9-0 at the end of July in favor of a monument to the 1845-49 Irish Potato Famine, in which almost one million Irish died of starvation and disease. The famine led to the emigration of about 1.6 million Irish to the U.S., many to Cambridge.

But the council's vote has no legal weight. Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 40C, gives all authority on matters affecting structures of the Old Cambridge Historic District to the Historical Commission.

"Despite great support from the Irish Community and the Cambridge community in general, the Historical Commission appears to be in opposition," read a flyer inviting people to march from the mayor's office to the commission before yesterday's meeting.

The expectation of opposition arose in part from a memo from Charles M. Sullivan, the Commission's executive director, to City Manager Robert W. Healy, in which Sullivan outlined issues facing the commission.

In the memo, Sullivan wrote that the monuments in the Common have long been associated with military history and while the Commission is "sympathetic to the idea of an Irish famine monument, but is not certain that the Common is the most appropriate location."

"That is simply not true," O'Connor said, noting that only a third of the memorials are military in nature.

Replying to concerns that such a monument would "open a floodgate" of requests from other ethnic groups for similar monuments, O'Connor cited monuments of African Americans, Polish Americans and Italian Americans, asking the Commission, "Aren't you drawing the line with the memorial, Mayor Sheila Doyle Russell insisted the Common has always been "a place where all are equal, all are welcome, and all are recognized and remembered as contributors to our community's collective heritage."

Sullivan, however, maintained that there is an unwritten precedent the commission must consciously decide to change. "The fact that we have a process doesn't mean that we're opposed to any particular cause or group," he added.

'Devil in the Details'

Funding for the proposed memorial would come from the Cambridge Celtic Arts Society, which will augment a $25,000 donation from O'Connor with additional fundraising efforts, according to the society's president, John C. Flaherty.

Although the society is considering 12 designs, the one they proposed to the commission differs greatly from other military-style monuments on the Common.

The proposed design features a life-size sculpture of a couple as they flee Ireland to escape the famine. As Flaherty told the commission, the statue shows a mother, too weak to go on, sitting on the ground, holding her dying child and bidding goodbye to her husband and other child.

Supporters say the monument represents both local and global histories.

"It's heritage," said Jack J. Mahoney, one of 50-odd participants in the march to the commission. "I think it's very fitting that the City of Cambridge remember [the Irish]. They had a lot to do with the politics and history of Cambridge."

And O'Connor sees a larger purpose to constructing the memorial.

"The memorial is not just for the Irish, but for all people. The great lesson is that nowhere on earth should people be put to death, in the most horrible and unspeakable manner, where food is available," he said.

One supporter told the commission that the monument would "send a positive message about immigration in a time when immigrant bashing is a popular pastime."

It was the monument's pluralistic relevance which appealed most to the commission.

"I didn't come thinking that I was going to favor it," said one commission member, who said the monument's "call to universality" changed her mind.

But the Historical Commission found itself unable to grant actual permission for the monument at this time.

Questions about the monument's design and presentation, and its specific location were cited by commission members who favored waiting for more information before granting a certificate of appropriateness.

Several commissioners still had reservations about using the Common as the site for the monument.

Commissioner M. Wyllis Bibbins called the Common a "totally inappropriate place" for the monument, telling supporters that it is "not your best forum," considering that relatively few people who frequent the Common.

After more than two hours of listening to supporters' statements, the seven-member commission unanimously agreed "to approve in concept" the construction of a monument to the Irish famine, "with the details and site to be worked out in a broader process."

Supporters are expected to bring a more specific proposal to the next commission meeting, scheduled for November 7