Heritage interpretation is a complex, highly contested and political phenomenon, and raises several questions such as; how and when should heritage be interpreted? (Barnett, 1997; Uzzell & Ballantyne, 1998; Harrison, 2004; Timothy & Boyd; 2006). Similar questions are asked in the context of difficult heritage; elements of the past that society can acknowledge as their history, but would prefer to forget (Timothy & Boyd, 2003; MacDonald, 2006; Pavlic ic , 2016). It appears challenging to ascertain absolute answers to these questions, and there have been calls for further research to shed light out on issues such as timing and memory (Stone, 2016; Farmaki & Antoniou, 2017). There has been little research carried out at Irish heritage sites that interpret the Great Irish Famine (1845-1852) and therefore, this study addresses the questions concerning interpretation from the literature, to contribute to the current understanding of this complex subject.