Images of the Irish
Famine
Washington and Lee University
Program in Irish Studies
Professor Marc C. Conner
A typical tenant or small farmer
cottage in the west of Ireland.
The Pictorial Times, 2.7.1846
A crowd of starving peasants seeking entry
into the Union Workhouse.
R. Wilson, The Life and Times of Queen Victoria, 1887-88
A Famine burial.
Dufferin and Boyle, Narrative of a Journey from Oxford to Skibbereen, 1847.
Famine? or Plenty?
“People starve in the midst of plenty, as
literally as if dungeon bars separating them
from a granary. When distress has been at
its height, and our poor have been dying of
starvation in our streets, our corn has been
going to a foreign market. It is, to our own
poor, a forbidden fruit.” Dr. Dominic J. Corrigan, On
Famine and Fever as Causes and Effect in Ireland, Dublin, 1846.
An Eviction
Illustrated London News 12.16.1848
After an Eviction.
Illustrated London News 12.15.1848
A Famine Village
Illustrated London News 12.22.1849
Go here for further images of famine villages.
“Immense herds of cattle, sheep and hogs .
. . Floating off on every tide, out of every
one of our thirteen seaports, bound for
England; and the landlords were receiving
their rents and going to England to spend
them; and many hundreds of poor people
had laid down and died on the roadside for
want of food.” John Mitchell, Jail Journal, or Five Years in
British Prisons, New York 1854.
Preparing to emigrate.
Illustrated London News 5.10.1851
Emigrating from Cobh Harbor, Co.
Cork.
National Library of Ireland photograph.
A Famine ship
The Jeanie Johnston
Replica of ship that made transAtlantic crossing 16 times from
1847-1853, from Tralee to Canada,
without a single loss of life.
Replica built in 2002, sailed from
Tralee, Co. Kerry. Now a
permanent museum on the Dublin
Quays.
http://www.jeaniejohnston.ie/index.html
A contemporary mural in Belfast
An Gorta Mor, “the Great Hunger”
Further resources for the Irish
Famine.
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For a fine overview, see E.R.R. Green’s essay in Moody and
Martin’s The Course of Irish History
Cathal Poirteir’s collection of essays, The Great Irish
Famine, is a superb detailed study of the issues.
Noel Kissane published a documentary volume, The Irish
Famine, in 1995 that has excellent contemporary accounts
and images
Cecil Woodham-Smith’s 1962 study The Great Hunger:
Ireland 1845-1849, though dated, remains a strong and
interesting narrative.
There are two particularly strong web sites devoted to the
famine: “Views of the Famine”
(http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/FAMINE/) and “The
Great Irish Famine”
(http://www.nde.state.ne.us/ss/irish/irish_pf.html)
[all images used in this PP presentation are, to the best of my knowledge, in the public domain. This PP presentation is
for educational purposes only]