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I Said we Where Sharing (Dúirt mé go raibh muid ag roinnt)

plate, resin, photographs, paint markers, fabric 2026

This plates reference the Great Famine in Ireland. This famine was forced and created under British rule; the Irish people had plenty of food, but the British exported most of the crops, leaving them with a failed potato harvest.

The photographs are representative images that capture different elements of the hunger—famine boats, statues of starving people, and an image of me in front of an archival photograph of my great-great-grandparents, who were born towards the tail end of the famine.

Above the photographs are reference drawings based on historical prints from the Great Hunger period, showing what was happening in Ireland at that time. The red patterns drawn on the edges of the plates reference lace patterns that women would create and sell to help support their families. The color red is chosen because green was not yet associated with Ireland and was considered unlucky, linked to the fae and to death during famine, while red was a more readily available dye.

The different layers bring light to the Great Hunger in ways that previously would not have been intertwined. The plates resting below your vision invite you to look closer, more like