Renowned Irish and Irish-American contributors—actors, activists, poets, journalists, politicians, and historians—offer moving commentaries and modern perspectives on the events and aftermath of the 19th century Irish famine, an historical event of such tragic proportions that it continues to shape the Irish psyche on both sides of the Atlantic.
- These essays insist that the famine cannot be studied as an isolated historical event, such as the Great Depression, or a war. Rather, the famine is seen as the end of a civilization, of an entire culture. A better anaology would be to compare it to the destruction of the Aztecs; what once existed was gone forever and to be replaced by a new order. Pre-famine Irish were gaelic speaking peasants who enjoyed an oral culture. There is almost nothing left of these people - the Irish museums have no artifacts, no written accounts. Nothing survived of these people, and what we do know about the famine comes largely from the observations of dispassionate English politicians.
- These essays insist that the famine cannot be studied as an isolated historical event, such as the Great Depression, or a war. Rather, the famine is seen as the end of a civilization, of an entire culture. A better anaology would be to compare it to the destruction of the Aztecs; what once existed was gone forever and to be replaced by a new order. Pre-famine Irish were gaelic speaking peasants who enjoyed an oral culture. There is almost nothing left of these people - the Irish museums have no artifacts, no written accounts. Nothing survived of these people, and what we do know about the famine comes largely from the observations of dispassionate English politicians.
