by Loretto Leary
Published in Irish Central on October 10, 2024 www.IrishCentral.com. Republished here with permission.
On September 25th, 2024, the bond between Ireland and Connecticut was further solidified through a collaboration between two groups—one based in Connecticut and the other in Cork.
This partnership, involving a private donor, brought together the Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield to enhance its art collection by acquiring two Alfred Downing Fripp artworks: ‘Galway Family Preparing Food in a Cottage’ and ‘Irish Mendicants’, both dated 1845.
The collaboration highlights the opportunities created by the recently approved Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission. Senator Bob Duff, who appointed Loretto Horrigan Leary, IGHMF Secretary to the commission, congratulated the IGHMF team on their recent acquisitions.
‘The importance of growing the collection shows the dedication and commitment of the board members of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield to ensure that this historic collection continues to expand and stays in Connecticut to inform and educate the public,’ Duff said.
According to IGHMF President John Foley, IGHMF and the Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre are dedicated to promoting Irish culture on both sides of the Atlantic. ‘These two paintings are invaluable additions to the collection. Fripp’s work offers a poignant and intimate portrayal of the lives affected by the Great Hunger, and these pieces will serve as a powerful visual testament to the struggles and resilience of the Irish people during one of the most challenging periods in our history,’ Foley added.
Fripp’s decision to paint rural scenes and peasant life in Ireland and Wales at the start of his career may be partly due to his own rapidly changing world. The Industrial Revolution drastically changed life in England in the early 1800s, and many artists chose rural settings as subjects to preserve the past. However, the 1845 date on the Fripp paintings marks a significant event in Irish history, the eve of the Irish Famine/Great Hunger.
Loretto Horrigan Leary, IGHMF board member, and CT-Ireland Trade Commission member, also celebrated the acquisition of the artworks and the collaboration between Connecticut and Ireland. ‘It’s just the beginning of a fertile trans-Atlantic arts and culture relationship that will benefit Irish and Irish-Americans.’
Commenting on the painting ‘Galway Family Preparing Food in a Cottage’, Leary said, ‘It’s lovely to see scenes of ordinary Irish people in 1845.’Leary added, ‘But it is also sad, knowing what we now know, to witness a family from my native Galway unaware they are about to endure several years of hardships and starvation.’
The paintings will be unveiled at a Museum Founder’s Ball at the Gaelic American Club in Fairfield on April 5, 2025. This event will mark the official debut of the Fripp paintings into the museum’s collection and celebrate the unwavering support and dedication of the local Irish-American community to the mission of the IGHMF. The acquisition was made possible through the generous donation of a Gaelic American Club (GAC) member and the local Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), who have deep ties to the Irish community and a solid commitment to preserving Irish history and culture. The paintings will be moved to the Fairfield University Art Museum’s Walsh Gallery. They will be included in the exhibition, An Gorta Mór: Selections from Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, which will open on the evening of April 10, 2025, further cementing their place in the narrative of Irish history and culture.
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Further Information
Tinteán has published a number of articles on the Great Irish Famine. The latest being https://tintean.org.au/2024/02/10/remembering-the-irish-famine-orphan-girls/
You can read about memorials to the Great Irish Famine in Australia https://monumentaustralia.org.au/
And about the Irish orphans who came to Australia https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/
Commemorating the Irish Famine: Memory and the Monument is a book by Emily Mark-Fitzgerald who is Professor School of Art History and Culture at University College Dublin
Tinteán 