The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849The Great Hunger is the story of one of the worst disasters in world history: the Irish potato famine of the 1840s. Within five years, one million people died of starvation; emigrants by the hundreds of thousands sailed for America and Canada. Most emigrant ships were small, ill-equipped, dangerously unsanitary, and often unseaworthy. Some ships never arrived; those that did carried passengers already infected with and often dying of typhus. The Irish who managed to reach the United States alive had little or no money and were often too weak to work. They crowded into dark, dirty cellars; begged in the streets; and took whatever employment they could get at wages which no American would accept. Epidemics, riots and chaos followed in their wake, so that Irish immigrants came to be regarded as a danger to the health of the community and a burden on society. The Great Hunger is a heartbreaking story of suffering, insensitivity, and blundering stupidity; yet it is also an epic tale of courage, dignity anddespite all oddsa hardly supportable optimism. |
Contents
These illustrations follow page | 288 |
Young Ireland in Business for Himself | 288 |
AFTER THE EVICTION | 288 |
Copyright | |
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April August Ballina became blight Boston British Government Captain Catholic Charles Wood Clare Clarendon Papers Comm Commissariat officer Cork Corr County Mayo crowd December December 19 December 24 depots destitute disease distress districts Dublin Duffy England epidemic evicted failure famine February fever Freeman's Journal fungus Galway Grosse Isle Hansard hospital House Ibid Indian corn Inspector Irish Poor Law James Hack Tuke January Jones July June labourers land landlords letter Limerick Liverpool Lord John Russell Lord-Lieutenant March Mayo meal Montreal November October passengers Peel persons police Poor Law Commissioners population potato crop quarantine Quebec Queen refused Relief Committee rent Repeal Routh to Trevelyan sent September ships Skibbereen Sligo Society of Friends soup kitchens starvation starving streets supplies tenants told Trevelyan Treasury Trevelyan to Routh Twisleton typhus Union week Westport William Smith O'Brien workhouse wrote York Young Ireland