Great Hunger Museum move to advance
HAMDEN — Quinnipiac University likely will be required to seek court permission before an outside organization can take over the charitable gifts in the art collection that once comprised Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, according to the state Office of the Attorney General.
But nearly a year after it announced its inquiry into the controversial fate of the collection, the agency does not appear to oppose Quinnipiac’s plan to transfer the artwork, and a university spokesperson has said Quinnipiac is pleased with the results of the probe.
The attorney general’s office will, however, monitor the status of the collection until the transfer is complete, Assistant Attorney General Gary Hawes wrote in an Aug. 16 letter addressed to Quinnipiac’s counsel.
Meanwhile, a Fairfield-based organization andQuinnipiac’s chosen recipient of the collection, is gearing up to run its first temporary exhibition using a selection of pieces from the museum.
The fate of the collection has been a subject of controversy since last summer, when Quinnipiac announced it would permanently close the museum, causing an uproar among the Irish-American community.
An attorney for the Committee to Save Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, a group that fought the university’s decision, called on state Attorney General William Tong to investigate the closure, warning it could involve the sale or disbursal of the collection.
At the time, a Quinnipiac spokesperson said the university did not intend to sell the collection and was committed to making sure it remained publicly accessible. But Tong in October opened an inquiry into the matter.
Hawes’ letter, dated Aug. 16 and shared with Hearst Connecticut Media by the state attorney general’s office, comes 10 months after the agency’s probe began and references Quinnipiac’s plan to transfer the collection to the Gaelic-American Club of Fairfield.
Under that plan, which was announced in March, the club would open and operate a new museum in downtown Fairfield while maintaining an educational partnership with Quinnipiac.
The proposed location of the new museum is at 636 Old Post Road in Fairfield, according to Hawes’ letter, which indicates the would-be recipients recently have established an organization called Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield Inc.
John Foley, a Gaelic-American Club official who has driven efforts to establish a new museum, is president of that organization. It was formed in early March, according to Connecticut’s online business database.
The group “has various tasks to complete prior to a transfer of the collection, including securing both the property … to house the collection and the funding to support all needed aspects of acquiring the collection and running a museum,” Hawes’ letter says.
Quinnipiac also must go through a legal process known as an equitable deviation action before the new museum can take over the charitable assets in the collection, according to the letter.
An equitable deviation action is “the court procedure where the ‘trustee’ of the gift assets is changed, i.e., where Quinnipiac University will be replaced by an organization that the state Superior Court selects as an appropriate replacement,” a spokesperson for Tong’s office said in a statement. “Ultimately, it is the court’s decision who will replace an existing trustee.
“In order for the gift assets to be legally transferred, QU will likely be required to seek a court order for the transfer through an equitable deviation action.”
In the meantime, the attorney general’s office has recommended that the art be used in temporary exhibitions so as to “allow the artwork and the story behind the collection to continue to be told while the (Fairfield-based museum) prepares to take possession of the collection,” according to another statement from the attorney general’s office.
Opposing sides respond
Organizations on different sides of the debate over the museum reacted positively to the agency’s findings.
“We are pleased the AG’s office has completed its review of the information provided by Quinnipiac and is supportive of our continued work with Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield to ensure the proper legal transfer of the collection,” Quinnipiac University spokesman John Morgan said in a statement.
Though a vocal critic of Quinnipiac’s decision to close the museum, Turlough McConnell also expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the inquiry.
“We’re really pleased that the Office of the Attorney General really took their time and really investigated all aspects of the case” and decided “to hold Quinnipiac responsible for the right outcome of the collection,” said McConnell.
McConnell heads the Committee to Save Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, which lobbied to keep the Hamden location open.
Failing that, the group sought to ensure that the collection remain intact, McConnell said, and he appreciates that Hawes’ letter promises continued scrutiny of the collection.
McConnell hopes the new museum will not only act as a space to display the artwork but will “be able to back it up with academic rigorousness.”
When the museum was open at Quinnipiac, McConnell said, it complemented two other university resources dedicated to the Great Hunger. They included a library room of relevant source materials and Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, run by Christine Kinealy, a leading scholar of the Great Hunger.
Quinnipiac’s museum was “the No. 1 location in the world where this story was properly honored,” McConnell said. “How do you recreate that? … That’s the challenge.”
Upcoming exhibition
Foley, the president of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, said the organization is in “lock step” with the attorney general’s office and working to ensure all appropriate protocols are followed.
Because Quinnipiac received artwork from donors, Foley said, the new museum will have to make sure it fulfills the same mission as the old one — “to preserve the important story of the Great Hunger.”
Asked when the new museum might open, Foley said he would not provide a timeline because he did not want to put pressure on the would-be museum building’s current tenants, who need to firm up their relocation plans.
Operation Hope, an organization that works with those struggling with homelessness and food insecurity, currently houses its office and food pantry at 636 Old Post Road, according to its website. In December it received $1.5 million in state aid to find a new headquarters.
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac University and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield have partnered with the Fairfield Museum and History Center to run a temporary exhibition from Sept. 17 to Oct. 16, according to a release provided by Foley.
The exhibition, called “An Gorta Mór: Selections from the Collection of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum,” will feature nearly 30 pieces from the collection, the release says.
“I’m so excited,” said Foley. “Historians can teach us history but art can make us feel history, and this is what this collection does.”
When he first saw the collection, Foley said, it stopped him in his tracks.
It gives an “emotional feeling of history,” he said, and he is excited for others to share that experience.