This New Lodge mural shows people on the coast, near abandoned buildings, trying to grow crops during the period of the Great Hunger (1845-1852).
“An tOcras Mór” (a literal translation of “the great hunger/famine”) is usually (in Irish) “An Gorta Mór” or “An Drochshaol”.
The left-most and right-most figures are from Searching For Potatoes In A Stubble Field in the Illustrated London News. ILN images are a staple of Belfast muraling on the Great Hunger: see the Visual History page on the Great Hunger. (Here is a list, with links, of all of the illustrations of Ireland in ILN from the period 1845-1852.)
The two central figures, and the composition of the three women together, come from Millet’s The Gleaners. (Thanks to Jeryn Mayer for this pointer.)
Painted by “Farset Artists” – Jonny McKerr (later the street–artist JMK), Paul McCullough, Eamon Monaghan, and Dee Fitzsimons.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 1995 Paddy Duffy
T00181
Paddy Duffy Collection 