Susan O'Toole
Description
Using dramatic photographs, intimate drawings, and fervent poetry, Susan O'Toole explores <i>The Great Hunger in Ireland</i> in a way that is both acc
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essible and moving. Her goal is to feel and understand the famine on a human level removed from politics or blame. The result is an insightful and affecting portrait of a harrowing situation. Susan O'Toole has been making art inspired by the Irish potato famine for nearly twenty years. Seventeen years ago, after walking the land of an old famine site, she created "The Tree Sentinels," a crescent-shaped line of eighteen trees looking toward the sea and the horizon to mark and keep safe the memory of those who suffered in that dreadful time. Susan O'Toole has again been moved by the plight of the long-departed residents of Ireland and the hardship they endured during the Great Hunger. This time Susan imagines their suffering through poetry and drawings. Remembering those unmourned and breaking the silence that surrounds that time is the string that resonates throughout these poems and drawings. Striking photographs of "The Tree Sentinels" from their creation to their present configuration enhance the impact of Susan's words and images. <i>Echoes of an Unmourned Hamlet</i> is the perfect gift book for anyone with Irish ancestry or anyone interested in Irish history.
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