Unlike so many events of Ireland's history, the Irish Famine of the 1840s is a relative newcomer to the commemorative stage. The 150th anniversary of the Famine in the mid-1990s occasioned a remarkable outpouring of events and activities, new research and the construction of new memorials and monuments. Yet the rapid multiplication of these forms of public engagement with famine memory is particularly striking due to the relative absence of commemorative activity before the 1990s, save for a few isolated events. In contrast, the centenary of the Famine in the 1940s was a muted affair, producing a commissioned volume of historical essays (not published until 1956) and the Irish Folklore Commission Famine survey undertaken in 1944–45, and little in the way of public or popular events.