The Irish Famine was the first national disaster to attract international fundraising activities. These activities cut across traditional divides of religion, nationality, class and gender. Such a response was unprecedented. The earliest fund-raising activities took place at the end of 1845. The first place to send money to Ireland was Calcutta in India. The fundraising was … [Read more...] about Help from Afar
An Gorta Mor
How the Irish Famine Changed American History
By IA Staff
IA Newsletter March 25, 2023
IA Newsletter March 25, 2023
Niall O'Dowd, Irish America's publisher, was the guest of honor at the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick's 239th-anniversary dinner in New York City on March 16, 2023. In his speech to the over 600 members and guests, he talked about the history of the Irish in America – from the early days when they were the first wave of poor refugees to arrive in the U.S. – to how they went on to … [Read more...] about How the Irish Famine Changed American History
The Spoilers of Our Land
How the British Government Responded to the Great Hunger In January 1847, the Nation published a poem entitled ‘The Stricken Land.’ It was a searing indictment of the policies of the British Government in the wake of the second failure of the potato crop only a few months earlier. It was written by a young woman, Jane Elgee, who was drawn from the Protestant … [Read more...] about The Spoilers of Our Land
The Great Hunger and the Celtic Gene
Thomas P. Duffy MD of the Yale School of Medicine explores why certain people survived the Great Hunger and reasons that the answer may lie in their gene pool. Shortly after the great Irish famine of 1847-49, the initial description appeared, in 1865, of a fatal disorder that compromised the liver and pancreas and resulted in bronzing or hyperpigmentation of the skin. Many … [Read more...] about The Great Hunger and the Celtic Gene
Hunger and its Children
Schizophrenia and other diseases associated with starvation. The outward physical consequences of famine and severe malnutrition have been long known. They are the same everywhere. In his recent history of the Irish Famine, The Graves Are Walking, John Kelly describes them this way: “In the later stages of starvation, the eyelids inflame, the angular lines around the mouth … [Read more...] about Hunger and its Children