32 Comments

• bunkerhill | Jun 27, 2012, 03:30 PM EDT

  I finally had a chance to watch the video along with the music and it was beautifully made, portraying a horrifying event which was a testament to human greed and meglomaniacs. However there is more to the story and I implore wonderful Fordham University to explore it. Many Irish families who lived through the famine whether they remained in Ireland, or immigrated to the US or Australia carried chromosome disorders caused by the terrible food deprivation. The starved person would recover given some sustenance, but as a result of their starvation they could pass on a chromosome disorder to their children. As a result of the food deprivation among the commoners of England there is a high incidence of Huntingtons Chorea, a particularly horrible disorder. Brilliant Irish families had chromosome changes which produced disorders such as Parkinsons, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis, Schizophenia and a host of other disorders. What a travesty that decent people should have been starved by a bunch of gypsies calling themselves royal, but witness the cleverness of the same gypsies in the US and around the world today. The Netherlands received millions of dollars from the John and Catherine MacArthur Fund (an American fund) to research chromosome disorders in the descendents of their WWII population. How did that happen? The Netherlands have indigent royals at the helm and royals always know where the money is. I would actually beg Fordham University to address the problem of chromosome disorders being passed down as a result of the Irish genocide. Incidentally the English "commoners" also have a high incidence of food deprivation disorders as do the Dutch and Scandinavians. Has any royal ever suffered a food deprivation disorder? I believe anything they inherit is from intermarriage. However the inherited chromosome disorders are a major problem for the starved populations of the British Isles. Please explore these disorders.

• IrelandNorth | Jun 26, 2012, 09:15 AM EDT

  Powerful video. Top marks to Fordham for pursuing justice relentlessly. Moved to tears. Ultimately, it was a class of people who perpetrated this socio-economic injustice. A class of people within a certain nationality. What do potatoe and buffalo have in common. The deliberately conspired staple diet of an aboriginal people inconveniently in the way of imperial progress. Ergo - decimate the crop/herd. The then UK wanted Ireland not the Irish. They wanted real estate not tenants. The British monarch, then and now, as the apex of such a class, inherits enormous responsibility, for one cannot inherit privilege without it. Yet I intuit EIIR is more progressive than imagined. Thing is, will the Council of Ten (richest families who own England and raise her army) impede Her progress, like they clipped their new PMs wings after his Saville apologia apropos Bloody Sunday in Lundyderry. If hell does exist, it must be jammed to the rafters with pot-bellied absentee English landlords.

• sirpeter | Jun 25, 2012, 06:50 PM EDT

  ciaradexy.To compare the Holocaust and the "Famine" is actually quite a good analogy.Let's take your argument that the Jews had no options and the Irish had.The Jews had 6 years of extremely harsh antisemitic laws(1933 onwards) and a book by Hitler(Mein Kampf) with text that reveals the crystallisation of Hitler's decision to completely exterminate the Jews.Not a bad warning to move.But they hoped things would get better,but they didn't,they were killed.~~The million Irish that died of starvation.Partial starvation due to blight in 1846 but few deaths.Tough year but hoped next crop would be better.1847 Total failure of potato crop.For poor living in mud cabins with large family,little or no money to move or emigrate,workhouses full and are(Dens of typhus)Starvation imminent.How imminent?As in now.Father fails to find enough food within three weeks.Three weeks without enough food and a family is too weak and sick to travel or do anything.Death imminent.Do you think the million who starved had options?If they had another option other than death.Do you not think they would have taken it? No Money,No Food,No shelter or warmth even if you can move = Death.Ciaradexy.Your understanding of the "famine" is still poor if you thought THAT million Irish who starved had more options.The reality is they had zero options.That's why they died.I'll teach my British friends as you say when I educate the Irish people first.

• bunkerhill | Jun 25, 2012, 09:54 AM EDT

  I am so happy to see a prestigious school like Fordham Law looking into what was actually genocide and not a famine. Why is it so seldom mentioned that most of the Irish land was confiscated by the crown making Irish "tenants" on their own property. I see other people questioning whether or not reparations have ever been made to the rightful Irish landowners. In actuality the English and Scots have also suffered desperately under the crown and many English writers do write about the struggles. I was amazed to see on a PBS New York Station on June 23rd the most astonishing documentary on queen Victoria. I had never known that the English had tried to shoot her but missed and killed a poor servant. So many people have been fed fairy tales for so long but now the internet has brought about tremendous interaction seeking the true history of events. The scholarly Smithsonian Magazine had an article a few years back on the people in Cornwall, England. Apparently they don't own the land they live on as it belongs to prince Charles. However I do think that anyone who wants to give up being an "equal", does have the right to become a "commoner." That would show them putting their money where their mouth is, and make them more believable.

• seanomelb | Jun 24, 2012, 08:01 PM EDT

  Ciara has a small coterie of British apologist as friends maybe she should hang out with some Irish people she then may learn something of Irish history.She just doesn't get it sirpeter,She's to thick and British focused to make an informed decision.

• ciaradexy | Jun 24, 2012, 05:22 PM EDT

  Sirp, Im well aware of the fact that the British are taught nothing of the famine. I lived with and hung out with a group of people from all over the UK when I was in Australia and we all sat down one eve and watched 'Michael Collins'. After the film, one of the English lads said 'No wonder we dont learn any of this in school. The government must be ashamed'. My other half is from Aberdeen and he knows exactly what happened as do all of my British mates so instead of people (especially anti-British Americans) moaning and whinging about it, why not teach your British mates about it? All Irish people have British mates so theres n excuse for them not to know and then why not actually move on? Theres a massive difference in the Holocaust and the Famine. 6 million were shot, tortured or gasses to death, they didnt have any other options. The Irish had. Some emigrated, some moved west and yes, people died but to compare the 2 is wrong. I did history in school up to junior cert when i dropped it for geography but we were taught about the export of our animals and crops. We were not taught that potatoes rotted and that was it. The curriculum has changed over the years. Sean, I hope all's going well for you in the Commonwealth where the Queens face is on your money.

• WoundedKnee | Jun 24, 2012, 05:11 PM EDT

  The Irish in Argentina also sent money back to Ireland during the Famine. Of course Ireland's gesture of gratitude is that today the descendents of these and other Irish-Argentines are turned away by Immigration at Dublin Airport.

• Seanmor | Jun 24, 2012, 03:40 PM EDT

  The government in Westminister provided very little aid to the needy people of Ireland in the late 1840s, when all of their country was ruled by G.B. As the Great Hunger raged ships laden with grain and livestock continued to sail out of Irish ports as ships fro the U.S. sailed in packed with 'Indian' corn. Among those who contributed to Irish Famine Relief were the Choctaw tribe of Native Americans who generously donated $170 from theit meagre assets. Let us never, never forger the knidness and generosity of our beloved CHOCTAW friends.

• sirpeter | Jun 23, 2012, 09:34 PM EDT

  ciaradexy.I'm sure you know Ireland was part of the UK when a million Irish people starved to death.That means we were not a foreign country.Those million starved were subjects of the Queen and therefore part of British history.Go to the British museum in London and you will see NOTHING on the starvation of these subjects of the Queen.You will see a whole floor dedicated to the Jewish holocaust.And that's not even British history.But the British actively remind the innocent sons of Germans when they go into the British museum how their fathers murdered the Jews.Well some of us here won't forget our million dead either.We will constantly remind the world and the sons of these long dead British murderers that they too had better face up to their murderous crimes.The Irish will be the ones who will write their black history.It is written on a thousand mass graves across Ireland and a trail of death across the Atlantic.Listen well.The blight came by accident from America.But the death of a million Irish people was caused by British design.That's not a hate speech.That's part of my history and nobody will make light of it like the British do.

• seanomelb | Jun 23, 2012, 09:27 PM EDT

  Ciara is a very forgiving person when it suits her west Brit ideals.

• ciaradexy | Jun 23, 2012, 06:09 PM EDT

  Mamaginty, I get the impression youre quite old so Im not sure what you learned in history class but when I studied history we were told that the famine was due to our food being exported by the British and the sole crop that we had to survive on was wiped out due to blight brought from the US no less! I wasnt brought up to hate a nation of people because of what their distant relatives might have done but if you were, then thats really sad.

• Cyn | Jun 23, 2012, 04:06 PM EDT

  I am curious to know if the "legal" aspect will be current law or the law of the day?

• mamaginnty | Jun 23, 2012, 11:23 AM EDT

  Our schools have always went fast forward when it came to our history. Our governments never mention it. Why ? Because it was Genocide of the Irish people. As well as being starved to death, many Irish men and women were sentenced and shipped to Australia for stealing as little as bread or milk. Do you really think any monies or food that was sent from all those countries ever reached the starving people, I do not think so, more likely on the tables of the priests, elite, and British landlords. It only took a few short years to kill off so many Irish. I am glad this tribunal has started, finally we may be able to print our history books with the truth about this, like any other country. Beidh Éire lá amháin a bheith saor.

• Portia777 | Jun 23, 2012, 10:34 AM EDT

  handsome68 Many times worse were, e.g., Chairman Mao, "Uncle Joe" Stalin, and Adolf Hitler, to name only three perpetrators who were doubtless much more conscious of their evil act(s), and therefore much more culpable. Yes, evil exists." So what is the one common denominator in all of these evil people? All trained by Jesuits.All organised programming using the Death Cult.

• Portia777 | Jun 23, 2012, 10:29 AM EDT

  DanOLoingsigh. Precisely. Same as in North of Ireland- the heads of all the religions wine and dine while their soldiers kill each other. Both sides are supported by the one puppet master. It is the oldest scam on Earth- Patriarchy- divide and conquer- and we amadams used to fall for it all the time. Not any more.

• Portia777 | Jun 23, 2012, 10:25 AM EDT

  mairint.Google Irish slaves and see what happened to men women and children and why Irish slaves were sold off to the British colonies to depopulate the country of its spiritual people. Same as happened to native Americans etc. His story is always written by the victor and is very unreliable. Google 1172 Ireland and see where Pope Adrian 1V gave Eire and her people as slaves to King Henry 11.

• johnshiel | Jun 23, 2012, 10:06 AM EDT

  the famine was partly due to the potato blight, but much more the result of English confiscation, control, and export for profit the rich harvest from the best Irish acres. Why is this still left out of the account so commonly???

• sirpeter | Jun 23, 2012, 09:56 AM EDT

  Dano.We forgive ya Dano.We forgive ya.We forgive your gombeen Hiberno-English ancestors for doing the British bidding and taking the food from Irish children's mouths and putting on British ships. ;))

• maireadinmelb | Jun 23, 2012, 07:19 AM EDT

  As long as the word famine is used it is a rewriting of history! One crop failed not all crops - as with the modern world the rich get richer and the poor get poorer!!!

• DanOLoingsigh | Jun 23, 2012, 03:00 AM EDT

  Mairint – You seem to have quite a low ‘Amazement Threshold’, so I better warn you of a few more ‘Amazing facts’…the Heads of government of countries such as France, Holland and Belgium regularly ‘wine and dine’ each other, not to mention the Germans, after they spent centuries ‘beating the s***’ out of each other…the Norwegians actually talk to the Swedes, after years of colonisation…the Poles have just allowed the Russians to compete in a football competition, only twenty years after they finally left the country…not to mention how forgiving Black Americans seem to be after the way they were treated in those years after the famine…I even heard there was a massive Civil War over there, fought to keep them as slaves?...Amazing….

• seanomelb | Jun 22, 2012, 09:28 PM EDT

  Interesting post mairint.

• KevinKehoe | Jun 22, 2012, 06:47 PM EDT

  This is indeed good news that this international tribunal on the Genocide in Ireland will take place in Fordham law school in New York and not in Ireland or the UK. For starters the political elite in both countries would never have such a tribunal on the genocide that took place in Ireland and if they were to it would be watered down and justice would not be done and the truth would not be told. The native people of Ireland who suffered horrifically during those dark days deserve there day in court and its no matter it was 162 or 10 years ago. When the full truth is acknowledged then we can really move on as some might say.

• seanomelb | Jun 22, 2012, 05:45 PM EDT

  bythebay may be afraid that her precious British friends will have their sensibilities upset by the only outcome of the tribunal and that is the deliberate attempt to commit mass murder.

• Bythebay | Jun 22, 2012, 04:19 PM EDT

  michellus, Ireland lives in the present 21st century, not 162 years ago. Our best trading partner is the United Kingdom which is also a fellow member of the European Union. Move onto to more productive endeavors today and there is much to be done.

• CitizenWhy | Jun 22, 2012, 03:41 PM EDT

  It would be good to assess the impact. Too often the cultural and political changes (including the Land League) among those left in Ireland that resulted from the Famine are neglected. It would also be good to study why so many Irish-Americans are now proud advocates of the laissez-faire capitalism that caused the starvation, since it was not the potato failure itself that did so.

• Bythebay | Jun 22, 2012, 03:07 PM EDT

  A Kangaroo court with 80 whole supporters out to villify with the sole purpose of promoting bitterness and hatred. No concern about the over 8 million people in the US who go hungry every day. They have a disease eating at them causing nothing positive but wallowing in self-pity. No wonder the bars in the US are so popular.

• Murph46 | Jun 22, 2012, 02:54 PM EDT

  SeamusMor -You and I don't always see eye to eye on everything ,but I agree with you 100% on this one!

• mlchellus | Jun 22, 2012, 01:19 PM EDT

  Please join the Facebook site, Irish Holocaust - Push to Educate the Facts. Daily research is posted on the Irish Holocaust/Genocide of 1845-1852. Presently, there are 3X as many Americans as Irish on the site and would like to close that gap. Turkish support of Ireland with a gift of cash and three ship loads of provisions has been posted many times. There is a movie on the subject to be released soon. All religious denominations donated generously to mitigate the Irish plight. I would like see recognition of the working person who donated from their pay-packet...the dollar...every week...even when they were on the edge supporting their own family....that is true charity. Only by chance did I see a monument to the Irish dead with a commemoration stating what the mill workers in Lowell, MA sent to Ireland - $2,000. Again, please join us on Irish Holocaust - Push to educate the facts....Slainte, Mary Lou

• pounder | Jun 22, 2012, 11:48 AM EDT

  Make the Queen eat potato soup when she visits.If there is a God,she will choke on it.

• normacathy | Jun 22, 2012, 11:15 AM EDT

  The video is indeed quite moving..I feel it would be more accurate if the generous donations of a NYC synagogue and the Turkish gov't were recognized.

• handsome68 | Jun 22, 2012, 11:07 AM EDT

  Having been to Grosse Ile, a day trip outside Quebec City, twice, I found it so moving to see where ships with starving Irish people of all faiths were met and often buried by good-hearted French Canadians. I am, however, loathe to perpetuate the "blame game" into the 21st century. Short-sighted? yes. Genocidal? Many times worse were, e.g., Chairman Mao, "Uncle Joe" Stalin, and Adolf Hitler, to name only three perpetrators who were doubtless much more conscious of their evil act(s), and therefore much more culpable. Yes, evil exists.

• SeamusMor | Jun 22, 2012, 10:49 AM EDT

  The English think they are better than everyone else. Once one realizes this, then their history of conquest, colonialism,rape, pillage and plunder makes sense. They are the biggest thieves of all time. This tribunal may shed light on the fact that genocide against the Irish was British Imperial policy for centuries, and the Great Famine was just one of a long series of crimes against humanity perpetrated by perfidious Albion to maintain her control of the Irish people her hold on Ireland's wealth. Hopefully some insights gleaned from scrutinizing British maladministration in Ireland will lead to global responses to regional calamities.