Doug Anderson

This painting shows a typical section of the National Famine Way alongside the Royal Canal on which the 1,490 evicted tenants were led on foot to Dublin to board ships for passage to Liverpool, England and then on to Quebec, Canada. The main features of the walk are the 86 bridges and 46 locks dotted along the way. The canal is only used recreationally now, but during famine times narrow canal boats would have been transporting grain and livestock bound for England. 

Directly in front of the viewer are a pair of thin life-size legs, giving the walker and the viewer the point-of-view of the many emigrants who followed this path. The long shadow of the legs almost reaches to the bridge, symbolizing a portal from the old world to the new. The blackberry bushes on the left side have been picked clean and some of the plants on the right are dying, their curled leaves reaching skyward. When I reenacted the walk, cows and sheep were a common sight along the way and always turned to stare at me as I approached, as if to say, “you do not belong here.”