SOURCE: "Literature, Memory, Atrocity," in "Fearful Realities": New Perspectives on the Famine, edited by Chris Morash and Richard Hayes, Irish Academic Press, 1996, pp. 110-18.

In the essay that follows, Morash explores the manner by which Famine literature constructed collective memories of the Famine, maintaining that literature contemporary with the Famine contains "iconic fragments," images that are disjointed and incomplete due to the writers' belief in the inadequacy of language to convey the true horror of the Famine. Morash goes on to argue that these images have been liberally borrowed from by later Famine writers.

[Scene: Pub interior]

Bull McCabe: Who would insult me by bidding for my field here in Carraigthomond?

Mick Flanagan: There might be outsiders, Bull.

Bull: Outsiders? Outsiders? Are these the same 'outsiders' who took the corn from our mouths when the potatoes went rotten in the ditches?

Flanagan: Ah, now Bull . . .

Bull: Are these...