Imaging the Great Irish Famine: Representing Dispossession in Visual Culture, Preface & Introduction

‘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.