​Designer/Metalsmith/Sculptor

​1845: Memento Mori - essay written for Paula Stokes exhibition/installation/catalogue at Portuma Workhouse, County Galway.



Portuma Workhouse, Co. Galway


“Let the walls of that workhouse tell the story of the hundreds carried out upon "sliding coffins," and buried in pits.” [1]

Asenath Nicholson

 

1845: Memento Mori is a bittersweet commemoration of the Irish Famine using the iconic symbol of the travesty – the potato – as it’s messenger.

For me, there was no more fitting end to this touring exhibition than its location at one of the 163 workhouses that operated in Ireland until the 1920’s. Paschal Mahony has described the workhouses as “grim bastilles of despair” [2] - overcrowded, damp and disease-ridden dormitories where many died from typhus and dysentery during the Famine.

The workhouse was introduced into Ireland on the recommendation of Sir George Nicholls, a British Poor Law Commissioner, as a solution to the widespread poverty and misery which he observed on his travels throughout the country in 1836 [3]. The Irish Poor Law Act of 1838 was modelled on the English workhouse system, dividing the country into one hundred and thirty poor law unions each with a workhouse at its centre. By the mid 1850’s there were 163 workhouses operating in Ireland and they continued to operate until the 1920’s. The original model of 130 workhouses could hold 100,000 persons in total and were sparsely populated pre-Famine. The potato crop failures from 1845 to 1849 resulted in widespread evictions and clearance of the land by landlords, and the consolidation of smallholdings into viable farms. Before and during the Famine, Ireland was exporting wheat, oats and barley to England, and economic historian Cormac O’Gráda states that "although the potato crop failed, the country was still producing and exporting more than enough grain crops to feed the population. But that was a 'money crop' and not a 'food crop' and could not be interfered with."[4] Tenant farmers and their families were forced into homelessness and driven into the workhouses, resulting in overcrowding, rampant spread of diseases and high mortality rates. The mass displacement and institutionalisation of people caused by evictions has left an indelible scar on the collective memories of generations of Irish at home and abroad.

Within the Portuma workhouse, Paula’s beautifully crafted translucent glass potatoes drew us through the women’s dormitory, where raised wooden platforms with paupers’ mattresses provided little comfort for women and children. The lightness and delicacy of the glass potatoes was in stark contrast to the heavy wooden ceiling beams and unadorned walls. Moving into the dining area of whitewashed walls and cold stone floor slabs, long tables of glass potatoes and rusted enamelled cups from the workhouse archive evoked the memory of the daily diet of three and a half pounds of potatoes and a pint of skimmed milk per adult. This subtle and respectful installation moved the viewer from an art experience to a meditation on history that is still very present in the Irish psyche.

1845: Memento Mori toured some very grand locations in Ireland including Dublin Castle, Turlough Park House, and Johnstown Castle Estate. The work in these spaces acted as a conduit to contrast the lifestyle of the elite who danced and dined as their rural tenants starved in the fields. At Portuma, there is no celebration, no portraits of aristocracy, no hand-woven rugs from far off places. It is the honest reflection of how a rural population was subjugated to the tyranny of a foreign government and laissez-faire economic policy, a conviction that the Irish should help themselves. As a workhouse overseer commented to Asenath Nicholson, “I have been here many years, and have seen the workings and effects of a poorhouse and can only say — the best that can be said of them — they are prisons under a different name… may I never be doomed to die in a poorhouse.” [5]

I am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to add my thoughts to Paula’s inspired installation 1845: Memento Mori. For someone who’s family was displaced during Famine times and again during our fight for Irish freedom, the installation was a deeply moving experience. A simple object can create a powerful impression and Paula’s contemporary reflection on this period of history has challenged us, drawn us into the conversation, and offered us space to meditate on our shared heritage as a nation. We are also reminded that famine, poverty and oppression are still a reality for many in the modern era.

I have had the pleasure to watch Paula’s work grow since her formative years at the National College of Art and Design where I was one of her mentors. I could see Paula’s passion for glass making in those early years and suggested that she head west, that is, Northwest to Seattle. And she did! Since those early days I have had the opportunity to include Paula’s work in an exhibition that examined the Irish Diaspora in America entitled Wild Geese: The Irish in America, and to collaborate with her at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. My greatest pleasure has been to watch a young artist develop her practice over 30 years, and to have the chance to experience this monumental piece of work that connects us to the tragedy of our past, in an atmosphere of deep respect for those we lost.


 

[1] Nicholson, Asenath, Annals of the famine in Ireland, in 1847, 1848, and 1849 (1850) p. 243, https://archive.org/details/annalsoffaminein00nich/mode/2up

[2] Mahony, Paschal, Grim Bastilles of Despair: The Poor Law Union Workhouses in Ireland, Quinnipiac University Press (2016)

[3] Bradley, Brendan and Doyle, Clare, The Poor Law, in Portumna Workhouse: Telling the Story of the Workhouse Poor, Galway County Council (2023) p. 8

[4] O’Gráda, Cormac, Ireland before and After the Famine: explorations in economic history 1800-1925 (1989) p. 40

[5] Nicholson, Asenath, Annals of the famine in Ireland, in 1847, 1848, and 1849 (1850) p. 171-172, https://archive.org/details/annalsoffaminein00nich/mode/2up