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Famine exhibition is 'Coming Home' to Skibbereen

July 19th, 2018 5:00 PM

By Southern Star Team

Black 47 by Michael Farrell is one of the paintings on show at the exhibition

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THE world's largest collection of Famine-related art, Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger, will open to the public at Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen tomorrow (Friday). 

THE world's largest collection of Famine-related art, Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger, will open to the public at Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen tomorrow (Friday). 

The exhibition opening follows a very successful residency at Dublin Castle earlier this year. Sent by Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University– its permanent home in Connecticut – the collection features selected artworks from 50 of Ireland's most eminent artists, including Jack B Yeats, Alanna O’Kelly, Robert Ballagh, Dorothy Cross and William Crozier.

RTÉ Director General, Dee Forbes, will officially launch the exhibition at a private reception tonight.

Described as 'ground zero' of the Famine, this unique exhibition is expected to resonate deeply with the people of Skibbereen and the surrounding areas of West Cork. 'Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum is honoured to bring Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger to Skibbereen.

It has always been a goal of Quinnipiac University and the museum's to bring this collection back to Ireland.  To include Skibbereen on the tour, an area that is synonymous with the Great Hunger, was important to all that are involved with this project', said Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum director, Ryan Mahoney.

The exhibition will open as part of a rich programme of cultural events, kicking off on July 20th and running until October 13th.

Admission to the exhibition is free.  

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