Irish historian discovers that Abraham Lincoln donated to Ireland during the Great Famine

Yes,Lincoln was the head of a constitutional republic, and felt great compassion for ANY group of people that were suffering. Funny how the Black people of America forget that it was a White Republican that gave them their freedom. The Democrats were the slave masters of the Confederacy. Also the first gun-control laws were passed in the Southern states to keep freed slaves from owning a firearm.

curtisjohnson: you are faring no better on this 'thread' than the German one! Are you seriously stating that $10 divided by a million is $500! You can't read or you are bonkers! .... and your bigotry and racism is allowing you to conveniently forget the ship-loads of grain the 'English' BOUGHT from America to try and relieve the famine, and the haunting question of what the other six million well-fed Irish were doing whilst a million of their countrymen starved! That is Ireland's real shame!

bunkerhill: "Is it a surprise to anyone that President Abraham Lincoln, who was so disturbed by the slavery perpetrated on innocent, Black Africans should not be disturbed by injustice in Ireland". Sorry, Bunkerhill, but that's nonsense. It was very common for Wasps in the Northeast to combine tears about injustices done to blacks in the South with the most vehement anti-Catholicism and anti-Irishism. I am surprised you are unaware of that Yankee tradition, so strong in places like Mass, PA and NY. The great John Mitchel, the Irish patriot who was a prominent defender of the CSA and whose son was killed in action at Gettysburg, often pointed out this hypocrisy. As to Lincoln, I don't post much about things I don't feel expert on, and I don't claim to be an expert on Lincoln, except to know that I don't like him. But Down South there is a traditional belief that Lincoln was anti-Catholic, as countless northern Protestants were (including the nut John Brown). Remnants of the old Know Nothings were among those who came together to form the Republican Party. Certainly, there was an atmosphere of anti-Catholic hysteria surrounding the show trials which followed the Lincoln assassination, and victims of the attendant judicial murders included Catholics such as Mary Surratt.

$500 in today's dollars, towntroll. For all we know the british terror state capped his contribution. Anyway, his behavior is in contrast to your people who continued to steal from Ireland even during the famine - a product of that petty, dishonest mercantile character that has been so well observed.

Big of him .... hmmmm, let me see.......$10 devided by a million .... how much is that each?

Very few Irish people seem to know that the Choctaw tribe had serveral generations of chiefs and sub-chiefs whose surnames was McCurtain. Some historians believe that these Choctaw leaders had an ancestor from Cork named Dan McCurtain. If this claim be true, then many Choctaws -also Chickasaws - are blood brothers of the MacCurtains and Curtins of Ireland.

Congratulations to Keneally and we will be loking forward to her book. Finally true histories are being revealed. Is it a surprise to anyone that President Abraham Lincoln, who was so disturbed by the slavery perpetrated on innocent, Black Africans should not be disturbed by injustice in Ireland. Someone on another post accused us of being anti royal. Yes you are right. We are Americans and we did have that revolution you know. A new fact has come to light in a recent American PBS presentation, and I believe you can get a copy. We have heard so much about the beloved "queen Victoria," and her great empire. How many of you know that an Englishman tried to assinate her but missed and killed an innocent servant. Also this presentation gave great insight into Anglo's great inventions. Victoria had a huge composium inviting all the inventors in the world to their specially built "Glass Palace" to present their ideas. One thing you have to say about royals, they are clever.

An associated so devoutly to be wished for - a troika partnership of evil that'll be with us for a long time. Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - what it represents here's but a smidgin of what Saxon's gravitas has provided ..... The British trade in African slaves began with Sir John Hawkins's illegal shipment of slaves to the Spanish West Indies in 1562. In its heyday in the latter half of the eighteenth century, Britain accounted for half of all the slaves transported across the Atlantic Ocean. The bulk of the trade was to the West Indies, Jamaica in particular, amounting to more than 1.6 million people in total. Hawkins is considered to be the pioneer of the British slave trade, because he was the first to run the Triangular trade, making a profit at every stop. Sick touch, is Hawkins was knighting shortly after his second successful African venture and his coat of arms depicted the head of an African woman with a chain around her neck.

I’ve mentioned this before under IC articles on An Gorta Mór but worth mentioning again in context of posts on Turkish aid during the Famine. The Turkish aid that sailed into Drogheda port is well remembered today in two aspects: (i) there’s a social club called the Star & Crescent in Drogheda supposedly named in recognition of that Turkish aid and (ii) the colours of the Drogheda United soccer club are blue & light maroon, the same as the Turkish football club Trabzonspor and both clubs jerseys include the star & crescent symbol (much more modern designed) as crests, keeping alive the memory of Abdülmecid’s contribution. It is also known that Nth American Indian tribes made contributions but this is the first I heard about Abe Lincoln's help.

@hus.djemal, His name was Abdülmecid I, there is an interesting piece on wikipedia about it on wiki, search for Great Famine and look under aid from the Ottoman Empire, worth a look :-)

his first teacher being RC Irish, one, who in his will wanted his slaves to be free surely inspired Abe. The shielding of the fact that young Lincoln being taught by a Catholic was enough to render this fine gentleman unsuitable for office. Such were those times.

"Maggie go poo in the corner" get some commonsense. Guinnessgrrl is correct in her comments and they (the Choctaw)were not the only native American tribe to contribute to famine relief.

Guinness, you beleive everything you read on the internet? I think you another guinness.

History is great in showing how some tried to help the Irish....now it is up to the present day Irish to help the unborn.....no abortion in Ireland, we don't kill our babies, let us work to outlaw abortion in America too.

Thank you GuinnessGrrl for the info about the Choctaw people, my late, 1st generation, mother told us their story from the time we were small children and she told us to respect all the Native Americans (and 1st Nations of Canada)because they understood hardship and oppression.