Visiting Coming Home

The MacVeigh family were one of our many groups of visitors who joined us on this rainy afternoon at West Cork Arts Centre. Some members of the family had already viewed Coming Home during its time in Dublin Castle as part of their architectural design studies and remarked how interesting it was to see it in a new format. The family felt that the historical short film that accompanies the exhibition is very important to the overall experience, observing that as an art exhibit it manages the monumental historical context of the Famine conscientiously.

Michael Farell’s Black 47 particularly engaged the MacVeighs as they felt it incorporated a lot of the different elements in Coming Home. They found the style and scale of the painting, understandably, impressive but also empathised with the artist’s attempt to recontextualise the Famine as a global human tragedy. The family identified many WW2 reference imagery in the painting. In an experience similar to my own, the MacVeighs expressed disbelief at the story of the Turkish Sultan narrated in the painting.

Black 47 is a painting of an imagined scene; the trial of Charles Treveylan. Treveylan, now infamous in the anthem the Fields of Athenry, was one of the figures in charge of Famine Relief during An Gorta Mor. His inaction at this time is a source of controversy in Anglo-Irish history and this painting addresses the complicated circumstances of the Famine. Farrell was an extremely political figure and had to leave his teaching post in New York due to his outspokenness at the time of the Vietnam war. However, Farrell was Irish born and even though he lived much of his life in England and France his paintings always engaged with Ireland and Irish history. In reality, there was no trial of Charles Treveylan, but there were trials of Nazi leaders in Nuremberg following WW2 and this painting eludes to this, along with other WW2 imagery. In the docks observing the trial is the Turkish Sultan.

I first saw the figure, like the MacVeighs as being rather bizarrely misplaced in this particular courtroom drama until I learnt of the interesting story behind his inclusion in this scene from the exhibition’s curator Dr Niamh O’ Sullivan. The Sultan of Turkey had an Irish doctor who convinced his employer to pledge £10,000 in Famine Relief aid to the Irish people. However, as Queen Victoria had only contributed £2,000, the Sultan was asked to lower his contribution to the sum of £1,000 to avoid embarrassing the Queen.

This absurd tale ignited a strong sense of poignancy amongst the MacVeighs. They left the exhibition with an idea for an interesting public venture; that Famine graveyards and villages should be opened as national parks and heritage sites in homage to the Famine victims. The exhibition arouses strong feelings and reactions among our many visitors and I look forward to sharing more of these experiences in the coming weeks.