Famine Memorial
Delaney, Edward
Download6A1-DEL-A5_cp.jpg (517.2Kb)
Date
1967Description
Detail of seated human figure drinking from ladle; The curved wall, constructed of incised pillars of stone is 16 ft. tall and divides the Famine Memorial from the Wolfe Tone statue on the other side and gives both a backdrop. This memorial is in a more abstract, Expressionist style than the Tone statue. The Great Famine (also known as the Irish Potato Famine) of ca. 1845-1852 resulted in approximately a million deaths from starvation and also mass emigration of a million people, resulting in a 20%-25% drop in the total Irish population. Cecil Woodham-Smith wrote that no issue has provoked so much anger and embittered relations between England and Ireland as "the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation." Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 6/6/2012)
Type of Work
sculpture (visual work)Subject
abstraction, contemporary (1960 to present), human figure, Ireland--History--Famine, 1845-1852, Twentieth century, Expressionist
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only