Art Depicting Ireland’s Great Famine on Display at Kean University

Ireland’s Great Famine (1845-1849), in which an estimated 1 million people in Ireland died of hunger and another 1 million emigrated from the country, is the subject of an exhibition at the Human Rights Institute Gallery at Kean University. 

The art featured in Tragedy & Tribute: Art Illuminates Ireland’s Great Hunger is on loan from Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University. The works were created by eminent Irish and Irish-American artists of the last two centuries. 

“The experience of Irish immigrants parallels that of refugees coming to the United States today,” said Lauretta Farrell, D.Litt, director of the Human Rights Institute at Kean University. “This exhibition helps inform us about the kinds of circumstances that drive people around the world to seek refuge in the United States.”

An Opening Reception will be held on Wednesday, September 25 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Human Rights Institute Gallery. Speaking at the event will be Ryan Mahoney, the executive director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum and Christine Kinealy, Ph.D., founding director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

The art installation will be on display through Friday, December 6.  Regular hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, noon-6 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday 2-8 p.m.  

Special tours are available by appointment. School and community organizations are encouraged to visit, in particular, school groups studying the Irish Famine as part of the New Jersey curriculum on Holocaust and Genocide.

The Human Rights Institute Gallery is located in the Nancy Thompson Learning Commons at Kean University, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union N.J. 07083. For more information and to RSVP, email Lauretta Farrell at lafarrel@kean.edu or call (908) 737-4672.