Transition Year Art Collaboration

A group of Transition Year students, namely Jessica Madden, Keeva Duffy, Maria Quinn, Cerys Porter, Shauna Fahy and Sean Power, have reached out to Portumna workhouse. As a group they designed and painted a series of boards for the workhouse infirmary. Here are their own words about the project.

"We got inspiration mainly from what life would be like if you lived in a workhouse. The boards consist of four scenes which are now in the places where the original infirmary doors and windows were missing. 

A family entering the workhouse

The paintings tell the story of a person's life in the workhouse, from our own perspective. We decided to have a main focus throughout the works; a man in red. He became our main character in the story. The first board shows him entering the workhouse with his family. We tried to depict the fact  that the family had no other option if they wanted a chance of survival. 

Seperation scene

The next scene is what we called the ‘separation scene’. This scene shows the stress and sadness of the family being pulled apart and segregated, never to see each other again. This scene portrays the horrific reality of entering into workhouse life.

Paupers attending Mass

The third scene is inspired by Portumna's workhouse chapel, which we were lucky enough to visit. The picture depicts people in mass, praying silently as they were not allowed to speak. The priest is standing before them. The chapel was also a dining hall. Meal time also had to be held in silence. We wanted to show the importance of this setting as our generation do not realize how significant it was to the inmates of the workhouse.

Remembering those who suffered

 For our last board we decided that we wanted to show that the people who suffered through these terrible times will always be in our thoughts and a part of our history. We wanted to show that we admire them for their bravery. We created a picture saying ‘we remember you’. The significance of the word YOU being in red was to show that it could be anyone. As we followed that red man throughout our small story, we realized that he could be anyone of the people that endured the hardship of the famine. We put a book in the middle of our picture to portray the story of An Gorta Mor meaning the great famine.

The entire project has lasted a good few months ago now and we have learned so much during this time. While we were coming up with designs and painting, we had to try to put ourselves in pauper's shoes and try to feel how they felt. We have more appreciation for our surroundings and know that we are lucky to be able to learn about this huge part of our history first hand. We hope that these works will help people understand and admire what the workhouse inmates, and people of the famine had to endure.

Overall, we had a good experience and we are thankful to the Irish Workhouse Centre and the staff for giving us this opportunity to learn and put our passion for art to use. We hope this art project will create an impact to those who see it, as it has for us."

Thank you so much from the Irish Workhouse Centre. Your artwork is much appreciated and will be a vibrant part of our tour. 

Authors: Jessica Madden, Keeva Duffy, Maria Quinn, Cerys Porter, Shauna Fahy and Sean Power