Only one mural on the subject of the Great Hunger (An Gorta Mór, An tOcras Mór, An Drochshaol/Droċ-Ṡaoġal, the famine) is recorded prior to 1995:
1993 “The Irish Holocaust” on the Springfield Road
1995 was the 150th anniversary of the onset of the potato blight. According to Niamh O’Sullivan in the Irish Times, the 1995 anniversary was when “the image caught up with history” and the hunger/famine was first seriously reckoned with in Irish art generally.
At least nine murals were painted in Belfast to commemorate the event.
In these murals the illustrations most commonly used are those that appeared in the Illustrated London News. Photography was still in its infancy in 1850 and would not appear in newspapers until the 1880s (LoC). Instead, newspapers used illustrations to bring their stories to life. (For a catalogue of images at the time and in the decades afterwards, including ILN images and articles, see Views Of The Famine.)
1995 “An tOcras Mór” on the New Lodge Road (painted by Farset Artists Collective) with two figures (the child in bottom left-most and the standing figure on the right) from Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field (from ILN) and the two central figures, and the composition of the three women together, from Millet’s The Gleaners. (Thanks to Jeryn Mayer for this pointer.)
1995 “Ireland’s Holocaust” on the Whiterock Road (painted by Mo Chara) including (apex) Begging At Clonakilty (ILN), (left) Boy And Girl At Cahera (ILN), (right) Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field (ILN)
1995 “Nature sent the potato blight, government & landlords created the famine” in Lenadoon Avenue (painted by a Short Strand artist and Cormac)
1995 “Weary People, What Reap Ye?” in St James’s Crescent, with a parallel to the treatment of native Australians.
1995 “Emigration Ship” on Oakman Street (Beechmount) based on The Embarkation, Waterloo Docks Liverpool (ILN).
1995 “Victoria By The Seaside” in Linden Street (lower Falls) by Rosie McGurran
1995 “There Was No Famine” in the middle Falls, including Bridget O’Donnel And Children (ILN).
1995 “Gorta Mór” in Rossnareen, including Bridget O’Donnel And Children (ILN).
1995 “Witness To The Great Hunger” in Slemish Way (Andersonstown)
Murals Painted After 1995
After 1995, the Hunger became an occasional theme in CNR muraling.
?1996? Eviction and emigration scenes on board in Thames St
?1996? Emigration Ship
“Hungering For Justice” – undated board in Lenadoon including Bridget O’Donnel And Children (ILN) and verses from Seamus Heaney’s poem At A Potato Digging.
?1997? “They Buried Us Without Shroud Nor Coffin” in Ardoyne Avenue, including (left) Bridget O’Donnel And Children (ILN) and (right) Funeral At Skibbereen (ILN). The quotation is again from Heaney – Requiem For The Croppies – but used out of context.
In 1999, a stained-glass window called “The Famine Window” by Calderwood Designs was unveiled in Belfast City Hall (Belfast City Council). It includes the pair from ILN’s Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field. The glass is in memory of “those citizens of Belfast who died as a result of Typhus and Cholera in the years 1846, 1847 and 1848.”
2002 A new image (and a plough) below “They Buried Us Without Shroud Or Coffin” in Ardoyne Avenue, including (from left to right) The Ejectment, The Day After The Ejectment, The Embarkation, Waterloo Docks Liverpool, all from ILN.
2011 “The Mass Graves Of Ireland” on the (upper) Springfield Road (painted by Mo Chara)
2011 Bridget O’Donnel And Children (ILN) was included on the hoarding around An Cultúrlann construction.
2015 The lower half of the Crocus Street mural is painted over and pro-immigrant stencils are added (and vandalised)
2019 “Stars, Look Down/A Réaltaí, Féachaíg’ Anuas” in William Street, Derry by OMIN, including The Battering Ram, a photograph from 1888.
2019 “Thousands Are Sailing” in Great James Street, Derry, by Shane O’Malley
2021 “Genocide In Ireland” in Ard An Lao, Belfast. Including (left): Family Being Evicted From Their Home In Rural Ireland, (centre) Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field (ILN), and (right) food arriving from the USA in the famine of 1879-1880.
References in parentheses to mural collections:
D = squire93@hotmail.com collection
M = Peter Moloney Collection – Murals
T = Paddy Duffy Collection
X = Seosamh Mac Coılle Collection
Written material copyright © 2023-2025 Extramural Activity. Images are copyright of their respective photographers.
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