Recalling the Famine’s impact on Irish and American history

Hello To the Team at Irishcentral! Yes, I wrote a comment yesterday, 26th Oz time, but it seems to have dissappeared. The response you gave me was that same was to be checked/edited by you. BUT I was not a member of IC at that stage. I am now, cheers sonykay

It is my understanding that the U.S. passed new Immigration laws in the 1920s which gave quotas to several countries based on the National Origins of the population of in the 1820 census. Ireland was given a large quota because of the high number of U.S. citizens who claimed Irish ancestry, the majority of whom were descendants of the Famine immigrants.

Historians tell us that in the early 1860s 63,000 young Irishmen who had survived the Famine?/Geat Hunger in Ireland joined the Union Army upon arrival at New York. These Union soldiers played a major role in the war that reunited the divided American nation and abolished slavery. Fifyt-five years after that war ended, Partition was imposed on Ireland by a foreign power still exists, and as recently as this year's 12th of Julty a Loyalist band played anti-Catholic tunes as ir marched in front of St. Patrick's Church in the center of Belfast.

Check out "Paddy's Lament".

IrelandNorth: I like your comment re reparation... and, out of the blue, wanted to say I'm nearly done reading book that gives much insight into the attitudes and economic power structures that caused the Horrific Starvation. It is called "The Killing of Major Dennis Mahon", a major landlord in County Roscommon, in November 1847. It's a slog, but worth it...

If the Irish were to petition the UN for reparation for England's/Britain's misrule of Ireland for almost a milleniium, I'm sure it would be in the trillions. Since the then UK weren't shy about doing so with their erstwhile arch-enemies Germay after the WWI, why not Ireland now. Perhaps unionist/loyalist posters might consider contextualising the 2011 LOAN of STG£10b conferred by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer to Ireland against such a historical backdrop.

The article reminds me of how Kenmare Street in lower Manhattan got its name. A politician named Big Tim Sullivan (born 1863) arranged to have the street named after the town in Kerry where his mother came from, Kenmare. Mrs Sullivan was probably a Famine era immigrant.

I did write a long comment but it was deleted.

Many Irish who made it to America found conditions here at least as horrid as they left. They did labor that was considered to dangerous or taxing to slaves (who were still valuable at the time), died in huge numbers by disease they had never been exposed to, starved in cities, were racially discriminated against, the list goes on. I wish all that part of history was also as well known as the myth that America welcomed the Irish with open arms.

Hmm, oddly my comment did not appear so am trying to repost. As a Jewish person watching this play I have to say the comparison is apt... I kept thinking where WAS everybody? Jews in NY did contribute $1,000 that year (1846, not 1848 as above) in the play, the equivalent, according to an article in this site, of over $80,000. But this is a permanent stain on a "civilized" country... oppressed people recognize one another. in "Man and Superman," Shaw has a character refer to it as "The Starvation," not "The Famine." And he was right.

I'm interested in seeing this, although I agree with CitizenWhy, more of Irish history should be included.

Iriush identity has many sources: the Children of the Famine/Great Hunger; the Children of the War of Independence and the Civil War (older generation in Ireland); the Children of the winning of Civil Rights for the Catholic Community in Northern Ireland and the Reconciliation with Britain (people currently living in Ireland); the Children of the Celtic Tiger and the EU; the Children of the Real Estate Bubble and Bust and the Banking Debts and the New Emigration(the people currently living in Ireland; the Children of the Collapse of the Moral Authority of the Catholic Church; the Irish-American Children of FDR; the Irish-American Children of Ronald Reagan/Ayn Rand. ... Irish-American have a very different Irish identity from those who have lived through all these sources of identity. In fact the last group, the right wing commentators found on this site, endorse the political/economic system (laissez-faire capitalism) that actually caused the hunger, starvation, and the cruelly managed mass uprooting from home and family. What happened in Ireland in the 1840's was not a famine. Only one crop failed, the crop the poorest Irish depended on. But there was plenty of food. The British government however, as believers in laissez-faire capitalism as the will of God, was morally opposed to providing any relief. It was not indifferent, it was hostile to the poor and believed they deserved their fate and that it would be immoral to use tax revenues for the relief of society's "losers." that is why the tragic event should not be called The Famine, but the Great Hunger.

Focusing on the famine (which should be called the Great Hunger) is not adequate. This play needs to be part of a triology showing the aftermath of the famine and the current situation in Ireland. Otherwise there is the risk of assuming that Irish identity is primarily based on the famine. ... The aftermath of the famine in Ireland included a steep rise in the marriage age (making sure economic security was in place before marriage; the formation of the Land League and the driving out of the foreign, exploitative big landlords; and a determination to organize to win independence from Britain.

For some reason I cannot post a comment. Why?

We staged a reading of this at Theatre for the New City about 15 yrs ago with the late Chris O'Neill, Jimmy Smallhorne and many others. It is a powerful piece.