ireland's great hunger museum

This is a small but excellent museum. It presents less on the history of the famine and more on the famine as interpreted by artists. Definitely worth visiting.

Quinnipiac University is to be commended for this museum. It is well worth the trip. Small, can be thoroughly seen in 90 minutes but leaves a lasting impression. Starts with a 15 minute film which blends a narrative history with slides of the art you will see on display. The first floor is art of the time period, then the second floor contains a video display of newspaper articles and cartoons printed at the time, alongside contemporary artists' interpretations of the tragedy in paint and sculpture. The volunteer curator was very knowledgeable and helpful. I learned a great deal from this visit and filled in many gaps in my education. I would think teens and adults would be equally moved, but younger children would not be appropriate for this exhibit.

I've read several books about the mid-nineteenth century tragedy in which English absentee landlords, together with the English prime minister and cabinet members, decided that their Irish estates would be more profitable if there were fewer people living on them. Although I was shocked by "The Famine Plot", no words had the same impact as some of the art work in this well-run museum. The sculpture of four iron figures, parents with two children, is entitled "Surplus People" - a phrase taken from a letter by Charles Trevelyan, who orchestrated the death by starvation of a million people. Hamden is an easy drive from New Haven and is well worth visiting. The volunteer guide was friendly and very well-informed.

The Irish Potato Famine was one of the great catastrophes of the 19th century, against stiff competition. Between 1845 and 1852, a million people died of disease & starvation; another million emigrated. In Hamden, CT, about 15 minutes from downtown New Haven, there stands a small superb memorial to this disaster, Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum. It houses paintings and sculptures that depict the famine, memorabilia of all kinds (including accounts in the papers & magazines of the time), and testimony of survivors. The sculptures and descriptions of the ships that brought emigrants to North America, the infamous Irish coffin ships, are particularly striking. An informed attentive staff stands ready to answer questions. No café; no gift shop to speak of, although you can buy postcards there. Two hours, three at the most, will allow you to see it all, but chances are you won’t forget it. You can go to museums twenty times its size, but you won’t go to one more moving.

The museum offers an introductory film to the museum and explains the great hunger. Wonderful art work that is very, very emotional. Small in size but overwhelming! Helpful staff.

I visited this museum which is affiliated with the Quinnipiac University on a gloomy weekday. Admission is free and there is parking right next to the building. The space was welcoming and my friend and I were the only visitors. We started with a short film about the history of the Potato Famine. Although the film gave a good background to the historical event that inspired the art we were about to see, but the narrative of the film was decidedly biased toward to the Irish viewpoint and painted the British in a very bad light. It made me wonder if there were more to the story than what was told in the film. Some of the art included in the film are housed in this museum so you can take a closer look at the pieces after the film. After the film, we explored the two floors of this high ceiling building. The small collection of paintings, sketches, political cartoons, bronze and wooden sculptures depict scenes and images of the blight and its effect on the people of Ireland.There is also a large stained glass window. This is a small bit of history which gets little attention in a world history class, and the museum did much to open my eyes to that tragedy. The front desk offers a booklet and some postcards for sale. You don't need more than an hour to visit the collection.

The potato famine (and other victimizing experiences undergone by the Irish) was a terrible event right up there with other humanitarian disasters through history--especially those exacerbated by human misbehavior. Unfortunately, Quinnipiac U has confused the horror of the event with scholarly rigor. Were this not a university museum, I'd be less caustic. I make no brief for much of British treatment of the Irish during the famine or at other times, but I don't need to be beaten over the head with it, nor do I need to be given the impression that awful as matters were, all was black and white. This effect was not helped by a friendly guard who, gratuitously voicing somewhat interesting comments about what is on display, also seemed to want to shape my reactions beyond what that raw information might provide. (In truth, I don't think he saw the difference between describing and judging--admittedly a difficult intellectual exercise.)That said, many of the varied exhibits are powerful, including some magnificent and disturbing sculptures by John Behan. If you can just edit out most of the judgmental terms in the audio-visual presentations and written descriptions, you should develop some fine appreciation for just how awful this famine was. The building is almost brand-new and quite attractively designed.

Wonderful museum explaining the Irish Famine...informative short film & beautiful art work in many mediums. Interesting information from the volunteer; you can tell the gentleman truly enjoys sharing his knowledge of the artwork. Free admission! Depending upon your time with each art piece this can be enjoyed in an hour...I suggest you relax and enjoy your time here.

We visited the museum a year ago and really enjoyed it -- until an overzealous staffer chastised our younger guests for noise they did not make. This time, we brought my sister visiting from Wisconsin and we all enjoyed our 45-minute stay. The introductory film sets the table nicely for viewing the art and understanding its context. The museum itself is beautiful and both staff members we dealt with at the front desk were terrific. We bought a couple of postcards and my sister thought the exhibit book, at just $10, was a steal.

Nice film and artwork relevant to the theme.Two stories but most of the museum is upstairs. The film and a few exhibits are on lower level.We thought we'd be done in half hour but ended up staying over an hour.

Take one look at this museum and you'll certainly wonder where "the luck of the Irish" came from, as long as you consider "luck" to be "good." There is a thematic approach here that tells the truth about a people, with all its beauties and warts, as well as those who willed it ill. There's handicap access, an elevator, modern sculptures, and historic placards that tell us not only why the famine and migration happened but who profited thereby. A good visit for little money..

The tale by its nature is a sad one. Quinnipiac University have done an outstanding job in collecting and displaying some wonderful works of art depicting this sad event in Irish history and its consequences at home and abroad. We visited just on museum's first birthday. They have had 10,000 visitors in their first year. We enjoyed our visit immensly.

A small museum, created by Present Lahey of Quinnipiac University to honor the struggles of his Irish Heritage

This is an excellent, if heart-wrenching, exhibit that really should be seen by everyone, especially those of Irish descent. It really brings home the absolute horror of the Irish potato famine and what it meant to Ireland, as well as the US and Canada due to Irish immigration. It also highlights perceptions of those in England by showcasing newspaper articles and cartoons from the English newspapers of the day. Even though I've read much about the famine, I learned many things that i didn't know and have to say that the exhibit is quite moving. It's impossible to come away from this museum without being affected. It left me with a profound sense of sadness. Kudos to Quinnipiac University for creating this wonderful museum.

This March, if you are looking for something Irish that does NOT involve beer or shamrocks, visit Ireland's Great Hunger Museum in Hamden, CT - 2 hrs from NYC up the Merritt Pkwy.Established by Quinnipiac University, the exhibit provides horrifying, haunting details of the Irish Potato Famine. Works on display include paintings,sculpture, photography, video and more that detail/describe the origins of the famine, its perpetuation and concurrent atrocities committed by the British Government, and its effects on Ireland's population -- 1 million Irish people dead, 2 million emmigrated on the "Coffin Ships" bound for America. It will leave you wondering why we are mourning Downton Abbey instead of the lives of these people. I learned that in just 2006, approximately 650 bodies of Irish emmigrants held over in quarantine were found in mass graves under a Staten Island parking lot. Including babies. Buried 4 deep. Quinnipiac has done an outstanding job with this modest, but heart-breaking and provocative collection. Ditch the bars and the green bagels and find out what it was really like to be Irish during this time. You won't forget it.