This site accompanies the publication of Commemorating the Irish Famine: Memory and the Monument by Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald (Liverpool University Press, 2013), a new book exploring the visual history of Famine, Famine memory and its recent global commemoration. After selling out of two hardback runs, the book was published in paperback in 2015, and has been widely praised:
‘a superb book about a complex subject… a landmark study, which will stand the test of time’ Irish Arts Review (Spring 2014)
‘a rich examination of the processes though which the Great Famine was given a heightened visibility from the 1990s and what memorialisation might tell us about identity, politics, and economics of the late-twentieth century… meticulously researched, intelligently expressed and amply illustrated’ Australasian Journal of Irish Studies, v. 15 (2015)
‘formidable and nuanced… Mark-FitzGerald’s excellent book will have an important position as questions arise around the relationship between the high-profile memory practices relating to the Irish Famine, so centred on creating a usable narrative of the past and of Irish identity, and the more recent traumatic memories which were being actively suppressed and silenced during the same period.’ Irish Studies Review, 23:3 (2015)
This online catalogue presents a sample of photographic records and information related to post-1990s Famine commemorative monuments in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britain and the United States. A summary list of 140+ projects can be found here.
The full records pertaining to this research project – and other details – will be integrated into University College Dublin’s Digital Library in 2016. The final resource (a work in progress) will be a comprehensive guide to contemporary Famine commemoration; new and/or amended information is always welcome.
For further details of this project, please contact: Dr Emily Mark-FitzGerald (University College Dublin).
Irish Famine Memorials 