Lender Family Library, Literature and Art from Great Irish Hunger in Library

From the website of QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY in HAMDEN, CT

An Gorta Mor — The Great Hunger, believed to be America’s most extensive collection of art and literature from Ireland’s Great Famine, is on display in the Lender Family Special Collection Room of the Arnold Bernhard Library.

The collection features three oil paintings and a monoprint by Padraic Reaney and the sculpture of John Behan of the Royal Hibernian Academy, whose work representing the hope of the emigrant has been displayed in the United Nations; and a moving piece called “The Leave Taking” by Margaret Lyster Chamberlain of Massachusetts, among others. An original version of Rowan Gillespie’s “The Victim” is also on display.

An Gorta Mor also has an extensive group of books, some extremely rare, bearing accounts of The Great Hunger, and descriptive panels portraying impressions of that tragic time.

The Arnold Bernhard Library is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to midnight; Fridays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to midnight

For more information, call 203-582-8634. *Hours are subject to change, especially during holidays and University breaks. Please call to confirm hours.

Click here for a listing of the entire Hunger Room collection.

More on St. Brigid’s

A few weeks ago we had an entry here about St. Brigid’s in Manhattan. At the New York Irish History Roundtable’s program today I met Sheila Houlihan, who is involved with the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s Church, at 8th St and Ave. B on the Lower East Side.  She told me some of the fascinating history of the buiding that has become known as the Famine Church because it welcomed many of the Irish who came to the city during the Great Hunger. 

Sheila reported that the committee will be running a fundraiser on Thursday, June 12.  We will supply details about the event as they become available.