The Great Hunger years of Ireland were from 1845 to 1852. 1847 was the worst year of all. Now Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut is set to unveil the first Great Hunger museum which shows the history of that terrible era through art and artifacts.
The legacy of Black 47, as it came to be called, is still being felt in myriad of ways in Irish society and culture and its shadow has played out in our history in ways that we are still only beginning to apprehend. By 1852 the Irish population was cut in half; by 1900 they were cut in three quarters. During the famine the British government never closed the ports or reduced the tariffs. Instead they shipped out food that could have saved the starving.
You can read more in an article by Cahir O'Doherty in the Irish Voice Reporter at http://goo.gl/GCrbx.
My thanks to newsletter reader Kelly Leary for telling me about this article.
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