Doug Anderson

THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE OF 1845-51

While nearly 1 in 10 Americans claims Irish heritage, popular awareness of Irish history is often reduced to commercialized, uplifting stereotypes like leprechauns and green beer. This nostalgic view obscures the true, tragic reason for mass Irish migration: An Gorta Mór—the Great Hunger of 1845–1851, the worst humanitarian disaster in 19th-century Europe. The nine artworks in this exhibition cut through that ignorance, confronting the brutal realities of evictions, workhouses, and perilous emigration, while highlighting the profound injustice of an abundance of food being exported by Britain as the Irish starved.