In the famine years of 1845-52, Ireland lost a quarter of its population. An estimated 1 million people died of hunger and disease, while another million immigrated to places like Boston, New York, and Liverpool.
In “The Famine Plot,’’ renowned Irish journalist and historian Tim Pat Coogan (“Michael Collins”) argues that these 2 million did not suffer simply because of a natural disaster, but because of a policy of not-so-benign neglect by England, which then governed the island nation. Coogan, who notes that Irish historians traditionally have been reluctant to explore England’s role in the tragedy, lays blame for much of the suffering at the feet of England’s half-hearted relief efforts, which were managed by a government official named Charles Trevelyan.
Comments
Chuck Leddy, Thank you for your review! Tim Pat Coogan is one of my son’s favorite authors. Shortly after writing his novel 'Trinity', Leon Uris told me the effects of the Irish famine were, in the long run, more devastating and pervasive than one can imagine. In our contemporary world, famine follows in the wake of hallowed greed, and the notion that excessive wealth is the golden seed to ones immortality. The Silent People I search among nine paths to the hills: One of them draws me toward vapors in skulls. I stare into dark holes, peaceful and still, Where sockets are nests for eye-glutting gulls. I follow a trail that leads to a bog: Parchments are etched, preserved in crude vine, Layer upon layer, a strange epilogue, Scores of gold chalices scented with wine. Come with me now as I write in a spell: My pen, a clutched dagger quickened with blood. Neat little letters, carved on a shell, I scratch thorny lines, a raw ocher bud. In shadows, I trudge along wailing walls: I open my flesh and suck in the blight. I hear the dead dying, a retching recall; The fields are all moaning, a petrified sight. --Daniel Patrick Murphy