An exciting new archive for a little known area of Irish Famine research was recently unveiled at NUI Galway. The Digital Irish Famine Archive shines a much-needed light on the eyewitness accounts of Irish famine emigrants to Canada between 1847-48 and the role of the many extraordinary people who helped them. Included in the archive are first hand accounts of the Sisters of … [Read more...] about Galway’s Irish Famine Archives
The Great Hunger
Hunger: Tragedy, Comedy, Both?
The British broadcaster Channel 4 plans to create a sitcom based on a script by Irish writer Hugh Travers. "Hunger" centers on the Irish Famine and has become a lightening rod of controversy. While the proposed production is still in its infancy and no one has yet to see a finished product, many prominent historians, politicians, and social media talking heads have attacked the … [Read more...] about Hunger: Tragedy, Comedy, Both?
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
Stopping the Famine Trigger – Phytophthora infestans
A pathogen called Phytophthora infestans has long been recognized as the cause of the Irish Potato Famine, which led to over one million deaths. But until recently, scientists were unsure of exactly how it subverted the natural immune system of the crop and wreaked such rampant failure. A new study published in Nature Genetics uncovers the process by which Phytophthora cripples … [Read more...] about Stopping the Famine Trigger – Phytophthora infestans