Here’s a picture from our trip to Ireland last summer of Adam Pomeroy’s “The Nativity,” which is on display at Galway Cathedral.
The Cathedral itself is interesting in that it is the youngest of Europe’s great stone cathedrals. It was built a little over 50 years ago on the site of an old city jail.
Kristin remarked that the painting made her think of the women forced by the Church to live and work in the Magdalene Laundries of Ireland. The women were often forced to give up their babies for adoption. With the institutional looking bed and simple clothing – I wonder if this was Pomeroy’s intent. The government inquiry into the Magdalene Laundries would have been very much in the news around the time of its creation. Perhaps this was not intended, but if it were it would add a level of depth and subversion.