Hunger

How do you live when you can't eat?

Use mouse to play.

Explore the inner thoughts of a farmer and poet as the Irish Potato Famine unfolds. Referencing Irish Poetry from the time, this game looks at the how people viewed the famine, and what they left behind in their works. 

Memory of the famine is incredibly intricate and layered. It's disingenuous and lazy to chalk the famine in Ireland up to the failure of an infected crop, but the reasons why a crop monoculture developed in Ireland are more linked to English colonialism than is historically remembered, and there were many people exploring these power structures through their written words. I think we should remember them.

A huge source of inspiration was poetry from the book The Hungry Voice: Poetry of the Irish Famine  by Christopher Morash (1989). The opening quote is from "Be Free" by anonymous (page 162). The background and icon image is Feeding Chickens by Francis William Topham (1848).