Message from IGHMF President
The 2nd Annual Founders' Gala brings together art, history, and community in a way that reflects the purpose of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield.
The collection at the center of this effort is unique - not only for its scale, but for what it represents. It preserves the story of the Great Hunger through the work of artists who have interpreted its human impact across generations. That responsibility - to care for, present, and expand this collection - is what drives this project forward.
Over the past year, important progress has been made. We are moving closer to establishing a permanent home for the museum, as Operation Hope advances its relocation. Quinnipiac University has reaffirmed its support, with President Marie Hardin playing an active role in supporting the transition of the collection.
The work has also extended beyond a single location. Exhibitions such as the current installation at the Lockwood–Mathews Mansion have demonstrated the public’s interest in engaging with this history. Additional exhibitions and partnerships continue to develop, including collaborations with Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, the Connecticut–Ireland Trade Commission, and connections to historically significant sites such as the Portumna Workhouse.
The goal is not simply to house a collection, but to establish a place where it can be experienced in a meaningful and lasting way. A museum, at its best, creates space - for reflection, for learning, and for shared understanding.
That is what is being built here.
We are grateful for the support that has brought the project to this point, and for the continued engagement that will carry it forward.
John Foley
President, Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield
Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield Thanks our Sponsors
for Helping to Make The 2nd Annual Founders' Gala a
Truly Memorable Event.
Harp Sponsor
Fairfield University
Gaelic American Club
O'Keefe Controls Co.
Quinnipiac University
Sacred Heart University Center
for Irish Studies
Shamrock Sponsor
Ancient Order of Hibernians - JFK Division 1
Baybrook Remodelers
Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center
County Leitrim Society of New York
Brigid's Cross Sponsor
Mark Smith & Family
“Who Remembers Me?”
Ireland’s Great Famine (1845–1852)
By Kevin Dalton
On a patch of ground, on the verge of town it’s where I’ve been laid
Marked only by a lone Celtic cross and it’s where I have stayed
For lo on a hundred years or more thousands have passed me by
Who remembers me? And why does no one cry?
They don’t cry because no one knows my name
Can’t blame anyone I guess… but still it’s such a shame
How many of us were placed here? That too is hard to tell
Who remembers me? Who heard the death knell?
All ye then, who pass by this grave, please bow and say a prayer
For all of us who were buried here… layer upon layer
With nobody to mourn for us… were we ever even missed
Who remembers me? Did I ever then exist?
A Celtic cross and a small notation, is that all there’s to be said?
For God only knows how many of us were placed here dead
It will all happen all over again in the terrible famine years
Who remembers me? … and for them too… will there be no tears?
I had hopes, I had dreams… so you should keep this thought in mind
God had different plans for me as you too may find
So live every day as if it were to be your very last
Because yesterday and today are all too soon passed
“May They Rest In Peace…”
On a visit to Ireland
I came across this small green patch of ground, next to a busy highway just outside the town of Dungarvan, County Waterford, and marked only by a lone Celtic cross commemorating the victims of the “Great Famine” that devastated the Irish population in Ireland in the eighteen hundreds.