Niamh Ann Kelly - Imaging the Great Irish Famine: Representing Dispossession in Visual Culture

Niamh Ann Kelly was born in Galway and is a lecturer in Visual Culture at the Dublin School of Creative Arts, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland. At the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, she studied Fine Art Painting and the History of Art at BA level and the History of Art at MA level by research. She received her PhD at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam. She has published widely on her ongoing research interests of contemporary art, the history of art and commemorative visual cultures of monuments, museums and heritage practices.

A crystal potato what kind of an artwork is that? Niamh Ann Kelly's book offers a fresh look at the visual culture surrounding the cultural memory of the Irish Famine, caused by the 1845 potato blight. But beyond that, in doing so she sets an example of the difficult but important task of todays developing methodology of cultural analysis. This entails an integration of historical research and contemporary reflection on how the enduring memory of the disaster continues to affect us, and hence, requires thinking about the politics of food. In other words, it brings not only history to the present, but also art and other visual expressions together with political issues. This balanced interdisciplinary study of an event with many social and historical tentacles shows everyone how to do this.

Mieke Bal, Professor Emeritus in Literary Theory,
University of Amsterdam and co-founder of the
Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis

Visual representations of the Irish Famine range from surviving artefacts and contemporary drawings to modern sculptures and canvasses. Some are disturbingly graphic, others quite abstract; some accusatory, others merely prescriptive. Some were originally intended for private consumption, while more are located in commemorative public spaces. Some would have resonated more with people in the past than they do today and vice versa. What motivated and motivates artists to depict the Famine? Which representations best convey the injustices and sufferings of the 1840s nowadays? In this pioneering study of the Famine in visual culture Niamh Ann Kelly provides us with a highly original and subtle discussion of the material at the centre of such questions. Her erudition and aesthetic understanding is supported by a wealth of illustrations, much of which will be unfamiliar even to specialists.

Cormac Grda, Professor Emeritus of Economics,
University College Dublin and author of Famine:
A Short History and Eating People is Wrong, and
Other Essays on Famine, Its Past, and Its Future

Niamh Ann Kelly's lavishly illustrated book throws new light on the visual culture commemorative of hunger, famine and dispossession in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland. Located within the discipline of International Memorial Studies, the text and images both challenge and extend our understanding of Famine history. Examining the visual culture since the time of the Famine until the present, Kelly asks, how do we view, experience and represent the past in the present? To what extent does the viewer insert themselves in this complex process? Is there such a thing as ethical spectatorship? Kelly's sophisticated yet sympathetic study of the grievous history of the Great Famine is a powerful addition to Famine history, Irish Studies, Memory Studies and Memorial Studies.

Professor Christine Kinealy, Director of Ireland's Great Hunger Institute
at Quinnipiac University, Connecticut

Imaging the Great Irish Famine is a vital book on an important topic that continues to haunt the cultural imagination in Ireland and beyond. Addressing the interrelations between visual culture, memory, heritage, museums, and archives, Niamh Ann Kelly's interdisciplinary study offers uniquely perceptive insights into the deep history, contested meaning, and evolving afterlife of the Great Irish Famine.

Christoph Lindner, Dean of the College of Design, University of Oregon

Extensively researched and theoretically informed, Niamh Ann Kelly's illuminating study of visual representations of the Great Famine critically surveys the recycling of evocative recollections of dispossession, which run deep in Irish historical consciousness and have emotive universal resonances.

Guy Beiner, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev and author of Remembering the Year
of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory

Published in 2018 by

I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd

London New York

www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2018 Niamh Ann Kelly

The right of Niamh Ann Kelly to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

International Library of Visual Culture 25

ISBN: 978 1 78453 710 4

eISBN: 978 1 78672 427 4

ePDF: 978 1 78673 427 3

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

For Aoife and Aisling

Contents

List of Illustrations

Crystal Spud. Galway Crystal Ltd. Gary Ward.

Potato Display in Famine Exhibition Room. Irish Agricultural Museum, Johnstown Castle, County Wexford. Image provided by author. By permission of Irish Agricultural Museum, Johnstown Castle.

The Discovery of the Potato Blight in Ireland, 1847, Daniel Macdonald. Oil on canvas, 84 x 104 cm. National Folklore Commission, University College Dublin.

The Irish Famine, c.1848/50, George Frederic Watts. Oil on canvas, 180.3 x 198.1cm. Watts Gallery Trust.

Woman Begging at Clonakilty, James Mahony, The Illustrated London News, 13 February 1847. Portrait of a destitute mother holding her baby in one arm and a begging bowl in the other. Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans.

Miss Kennedy Distributing Clothing at Kilrush. The Illustrated London News, 22 December 1849. Here a charitable Miss Kennedy is distributing clothing to destitute women and children in rags. Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans.

Sketch of a Woman and her Children. The Illustrated London News, 22 December 1849. This is Bridget O'Donnel with her children. They are barefoot and dressed in rags. Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans.

Alanna O'Kelly, A'Beath, 1996. Compilation of Video Stills from Video Projected Installation. Image courtesy of Alanna O'Kelly. Alanna O'Kelly.

Edward Delaney, Wolfe Tone Monument: Famine Fountain, 1967. Bronze. Detail: Famine Fountain. St Stephen's Green, Dublin, Ireland. Image provided by author.

Edward Delaney, Wolfe Tone Monument: Famine Fountain, 1967. Bronze. Detail: Wolfe Tone. St Stephen's Green, Dublin, Ireland. Image provided by author.

Rowan Gillespie,