One in four Irish people, more than 2 million people, left Ireland between 1845 and 1855, many sailing on so-called “coffin ships” which had mortality rates of 30%. Another million died in the Great Hunger itself, in most cases the proximate causes were fever and dysentery (WP | Irish Central).
Crocus Street, west Belfast
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Copyright © 2001 Peter Moloney
M01486
“Britain’s genocide by starvation”, “Ireland’s holocaust 1845-1849”, “Over 1,500,000 deaths”. Completed version of the Great Hunger mural on the Whiterock Road, Belfast, previously seen twice in development: 1995 | 1997. The images used are from Illustrated London Newses of the time (see the Visual History page on an gorta mór).
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Copyright © 1999 Peter Moloney
M02750
Irish peasants board a ship for North America to escape the Great Hunger.
Oakman Street, Belfast
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Copyright © 1999 Peter Moloney
M02067
Here’s an updated (but still unfinished version) of 1995’s Ireland’s Holocaust, with images from issues of Illustrated London News of the period (also used in An tOcras Mór on New Lodge Road).
Whiterock Road, west Belfast
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Copyright © 1997 Peter Moloney
M01359
Four people in rags search for potatoes in a field, with abandoned houses in the background. A mural commemorating the Great Hunger, based on images from the reports of London Illustrated (including the one below), on the New Lodge Road.
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Copyright © 1995 Peter Moloney
M01239
There was no famine; it was genocide. Mural for the 150th anniversary mural of An Gorta Mór, Falls Road, Belfast. With a dove on the chimney and a green ribbon below. Signed Roisín Byrne & Kathy Rooney
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Copyright © 1995 Peter Moloney
M01217 M01216 M01215
Copyright © 1995 Peter Moloney
Here is an in-progress version of the An Gorta Mór mural on the Whiterock Road, Belfast.
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Copyright © 1995 Peter Moloney
M01189
Peter Moloney Collection 