Irish Famine Exhibition — Attraction in Dublin

An excellently conceived exhibition on a ghastly fact, which does not gloss over anything and names horse and rider: that is, the crimes of the British Empire. What is otherwise known from the Empire, see for example the study by Caroline Elkins "Legacy of violence", the Irish also had to endure: To be exploited, to be treated as inferior human beings, at the mercy of the naked greed of men who, to everyone's shame, called themselves Christians. What a shame. One wonders, where are the compensation payments???? The book, stick and film are very well done. One wishes this exhibition had a permanent home, a worthy museum in a central location in Dublin. And: that the exhibition is also shown in England and on the European mainland. For Switzerland we could try to organize something!!! Further all the best, so that the wounds continue to heal. And maybe the exhibition will cause one or the other visitor to contribute to making the world a little more humane. Actually, everything would be there: UN Declaration of Human Rights, International Law, UN Charter. It is now up to us contemporaries to continue sowing the seed of humanity!!! Greetings from Switzerland, which was treated differently by the British Empire. For their imperial strategy they enforced the balance of powers on the continent, Switzerland as guardian of the Alpine passes should therefore be independent. Generous of the British, or not???? Had they had other plans, Switzerland would probably have suffered similar things as Ireland, Kenya, India, etc., etc. According to Caroline Elkins, it was not by chance that people died of hunger in the Empire, but by strategy. Hunger weapon as a strategy of subjugation....

It's a little bare-bones, with a minimum of objects on display to anchor the visitor (they DO have a soup cauldron from the period!), but the informational cards on the walls are well-written (minus the apostrophe use) and cleanly designed, with some fantastic contemporary photographs, quotes and articles. The accompanying film is well made, and serves to bring some of the supporting materials to life. As someone with very little information on the events in question, yet keenly interested in learning about them, the exhibition was just what I was looking for. For €12, it would be nice to have some more three-dimensional objects or displays, but overall I had a great time.

The exhibition is bang in the middle of the city, and very easy to get to.

The accompanying book (€20) serves to collect the material in the exhibition, so one could argue that if you've experienced one, you don't need the other - however, again, the material and presentation are excellent, so a worthwhile souvenir.

The thumb drive of the exhibition contains the materials from the wall boards and the whole of the film shown during the exhibition (~15 minutes worth of material). I'd really have appreciated if these elements were presented in a higher resolution - there's certainly space remaining on the drive for better-quality files.

I learned a lot, going to the exhibition, but my chief takeaway is what a punchable face Charles Edward Trevelyan had. The famine was the "judgement of god", was it? "The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people", eh? What an absolute...

This was amazing! Located on the top floor of an indoor mall across from St Stephen's Green, the exhibit was a little hard to locate because of a large crowd outside, but then I noticed a person outside with a conspicuous billboard directing us to the exhibit.

My wife is Ukrainian and had little perspective on the famine and it's impact on the population as well as the political dynamics that made it so severe, but we both came away moved and impressed at the exhibition.

We walked along the path of the photographs in numerical order and they did an excellent job of tracing the chronology of the famine, and towards the end there was an great video presentation that we all enjoyed immensely.

At the end there was a book available, as well as a USB drive with all the photos and the video on it. While I was buying it, I chatted with the kind fellow behind the desk, and was surprised to learn that the exhibit was the brainchild of his. I mentioned that my brother was going to be visiting Ireland in October and I planned to recommend that he visit as well.

Sadly, it turns out that the exhibition isn't permanent, and the organizer told me to my surprise that there was no museum or permanent exhibit to the famine in Dublin, and their lease ends in August.

It's hard to believe that a series of historical events as impactful to the 19th and 20th centuries doesn't have a dedicated space in Dublin, but if you can manage to make it to see it before it closes, you won't regret it, and you just may learn a...