School of Design and Art Redressing the Silence: Photography, Memory and the Great Famine Paul Anthony Matthew Carpenter This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University February 2015 DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. Paul Carpenter Signature Date i ABSTRACT Since its invention, photography’s ability to stand as a silent proxy to the absent subject that it both represents and monumentalises has captivated us. It is this paradox that has compelled our use of the medium to comprehend a past being swept away by inexorable change. In recent years, this enigmatic trait has also been deployed to examine how the social catastrophes of modernity are thought about, commemorated and remembered. Following developments in postcolonial scholarship and the representation of trauma, this thesis contemplates how reading the silences that encompass the Great Famine (1845-1852) might, by uncovering the event’s traces, provide insight into the life, culture and resistances of the “other” obliterated by it. Central to this undertaking is an investigation of the forgetfulness for this watershed that emanates through photography itself. Surprisingly, given that the Famine occurred during a period that saw significant advancements in the medium, many of which were instigated by Ireland’s colonial elite, the Anglo-Irish Ascendency, no photographic image of this event is known to exist. In keeping with photography’s internal contradictions, this thesis is informed by a body of aftermath photographs of the Famine that have been produced by me. By enticing the viewer/reader into a state of ambivalence for historicist interpretations into the Famine, this creative production, featuring places of absence, loss and forgetting, acknowledges how through the recognition of silence we bear witness to how this trauma plays out in the present. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I place on the record my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisors, Dr. Ann Schilo and Ass. Prof. Joan Wardrop. They have offered me constant guidance throughout the thesis development process. I am particularly appreciative of the academic freedom they allowed me in examining this project from a variety of divergent perspectives. And given that the thesis was informed by a photographically mediated creative production, this freedom was paramount in the projects progress from a few scattered ideas into a much bigger endeavour. I thank the Faculty of Humanities and the School of Design and Art for their support, particularly with my Academic Study Leave and working arrangements while undertaking fieldwork. I also wish to thank my families in Australia and Ireland, particularly my wife, Kelley. This project has involved many challenges. The time devoted to fieldwork, travel and writing was great. Throughout this process, Kelley has been my constant support. I could not have completed the project without her. Most of all, I thank the many anonymous people that helped me in Ireland. The assistance they gave me in tracking down local memories and forgotten places was invaluable. I am indebted to their generosity and insight. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration…………………………………………...…………………………………………..................................i Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………....................................ii Acknowledements…………………………………………………………………………………………....................iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………................................iv List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...v Introduction……………………………………………………………………….............................................1 Chapter One: Silencing the Other: Revisionism, Ideology and Photography’s “surprising” absence from the Famine record…………….………………………………………………..24 Chapter Two: Silencing the Gaze: Photography and its Emergence in Colonial Ireland…………….…………………………………………………………………………………………….54 Chapter Three: Returning the Gaze: John Shaw Smith and the Haunting Premonitions of Early Photography……………………………………………………………………………….79 Chapter Four: Witnessing the Silence: Forgotten Memory and its Representations………………………………………………………………………………………………….106 Chapter Five: Reading the Ruins: The Famine and its Inscriptions…………………………………142 Chapter Six: Mimesis, Silence and the Apparition at Knock……..……………………………………164 Chapter Seven: Glimpses of the Great Famine from the William Henry Fox Talbot Archive………………………………………………………………………………………………………….201 Conclusion……………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………….241 Bibliography/Reference List………………………………………………….………………………………….....252 Appendix One: Province and County Map of Ireland…....................……………………..……266 Appendix Two: The Mapping Process …...……………………………………..…………………………….267 Appendix Three: Figures and Ghosts in the Leinster Calotypes …………..……………………..270 Appendix Four: Exhibition Catalogue ……………………………………..……………………………………282 Appendix Five: Redressing the Silence (Attached DVD)……………………….……………………..287 Appendix Six: Permission to Use Published Paper as a Thesis Chapter……………………….288 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: The Crag Graveyard, Clonconnane, County Limerick, 2012 (Author).1 Figure 2: St. Mary’s Cathedral (Roman Catholic), Kilkenny Town, County Kilkenny, 2008 (Author). 3 Figure 3: Glenamaddy Workhouse, Glenamaddy, County Galway, 2012 (Author).10 Figure 4: The Mary Robinson Tapestry Rug, Dame Street, Dublin, 2002 (Author).11 Figure 5: Victoria’s Bronze Ghost, George Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2011 (Author).24 Figure 6: Statue of Sir John Pope Hennessy holding a copy of the Mauritian Constitution, Port Louis, Mauritius, 2012 (Author).31 Figure 7: Beshoff’s Chipper Restaurant, O’Connell Street, Dublin, 2012 (Author).35 Figure 8: Unnamed Irish labourer from the Sexton Collection (Photographer unknown, circa 1855).37 Figure 9: The Brontë Parsonage, Haworth, Yorkshire, 2012 (Author).38 Figure 10: Photographic reproduction of the “Pillar Portrait” by Branwell Brontë (1833 - 4).42 Figure 11: The Shadow of King Billy on the Queen Square, Bristol, 2012 (Author).45 Figure 12: Henry Cheere's monument to Robert the 19th Earl of Kildare, Christchurch Cathedral (Church of Ireland), Dublin, 2012 (Author).46 Figure 13: Maquette of the statue dedicated to Lord Gregory in Colombo, Sri Lanka, located at Coole Park, Gort, County Galway, 2012 (Author).51 Figure 14: The Leviathan of Parsonstown, Birr Castle, Birr, County Offaly, 2010 (Author).54 Figure 15: William Smith O’Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher, Kilmainham Jail, 1848.59 Figure 16: The faked O’Brien and Meagher portrait (n.d.).59 Figure 17: The Legion of Mary Centre, Dublin, formally the site of the North Dublin Union Workhouse, 2010 (Author).62 Figure 18: The Bellevue Folly (eye-catcher), Lawrencetown, County Galway, 2012 (Author).68 Figure 19: William Despard Hemphill, Steroview of Western View, Athassil Abbey (1860), from the Sexton Collection.69 Figure 20: Smith’s Celestial Globe, Herschel Astronomy Museum, Somerset, Bath, 2012 (Author).71 Figure 21: J. H. Foley’s statue of Lord Rosse at Birr, County Offaly, 2010 (Author).72 Figure 22: Image attributable to Francis Edmund Currey and John Gregory Crace (1853), from the Sexton Collection.73 Figure 23: William Despard Hemphill (1865), Lady Blessington's Bath, Clonmel, County Tipperary.75 Figure 24: William Despard Hemphill (1857), from the Sexton Collection.76 v Figure 25: Famine eviction site, Tonabrocky, County Galway, 2010 (Author).79 Figure 26: Walter McGill’s replica of The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, New South Wales, 2009 (Author).88 Figure 27: The Deserted Village, Slievemore Mountain, Achill Island, County Mayo, 2008 (Author).92 Figure 28: Top Withens, Stanbury Moor, West Yorkshire, 2012 (Author).93 Figure 29: Cillin at Stonepark South, County Roscommon, 2010 (Author).95 Figure 30: James Mahony, “Searching for Potatoes in a Stubble Field” (ILN).97 Figure. 31. Famine graveyard on the outskirts of Athea, County Limerick, 2012 (Author).98 Figure 32: Branwell Brontë’s “Pillar Portrait” at the Black Bull Public House, Haworth, Yorkshire, 2012 (Author).100 Figure 33: Eamon Mahoney hunting at Ballymoney, Gorey, County Wexford (early 1980s) Rita Mahoney.106 Figure 34: Our Lady of Kerrytown Shrine, Kerrytown, Dungloe, County Donegal, 2006 (Author).110 Figure 35: A Place Known only by Priests and Gravediggers: The Rossmada Famine burial site Parteen, County Clare, 2012 (Author).110 Figure 36: A Place for Lost Dogs: The Clonattin Graveyard, Gorey, County Wexford, 2012 (Author).111 Figure 37: “Nordlager Ohrdruf, 1995”, Mikael Levin.113 Figure 38: Famine Burial site on the Kilronan Mountain, Ballyfarnon, County Roscommon, 2008 (Author).117 Figure 39: Famine Burial site, Lisnabinnia, Ballymoe, County Galway, 2008 (Author).118 Figure 40: Signpost near the top of Kilronan Mountain, Ballyfarnon, County Roscommon, 2008 (Author).119 Figure 41: A conifer plantation conceals a site from a Famine eviction at Ballinglass, County Galway, 2012 (Author).121 Figure 42: Edward Delaney’s Famine memorial, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, 2008 (Author).123 Figure 43: Rowan Gillespie’s Famine memorial at the Custom House Quay, Dublin, 2012 (Author).124 Figure 44: The National Famine Monument, Murrisk, County Mayo, 2006 (Author).126 Figure 45. Cillin (grave for unbaptised children and strangers),