A figure of authority moved to pity, comforts a young barefoot girl at the scene of an eviction on Clare Island, Ireland. Two young lads, also barefoot and in rags, look on as the soldier tenderly holds her hand and sits her on his lap. In the background a dejected man and woman hang their heads. Their destitution and poverty illustrated by the meagre possessions at the woman's side. These miserable conditions were brought on by the potato famine in the mid 19th century and further compounded by the forced evictions of poverty-stricken peasants from their homes and farms.