The Irish Potato Famine

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[cathalbrendankelly]

Thank you Simon and the writers for telling this story. One interesting fact was the donation made by a native American tribe called the Choctaw. This tribe heard about the famine in Ireland and sent money to the people of Ireland. It was an amazing gesture of kindness.

[eireduchess]

As an Irish person this hits very close to home. Our language and culture were decimated, people left home never to see it again, anti Irish sentiment was worse than ever. The lasting effects of the famine are still felt to this day and the Irish population still hasn’t recovered from the deaths during the period

[black_hand]

There was a Native American tribe that sent Ireland money during the famine to the equivalent of like $100k in todays money I think. And a when that tribe hit hard times a few years ago, the Irish government paid them back by sending money and medical assistance. The Irish and that tribe have a great relationship with each other because of it.

[Yuppa.]

Fun fact: Turkey offered to send Ireland food aid to get them through the famine but queen Victoria turned the offer down

[ZentaBon]

It must've been incredibly horrifying, imagine nearing your harvest only for every potato in your field to be hollow, infected...realizing you and your entire community may very well starve.

[michaeloreilly]

My father was born in county Cavan in 1920. He distinctly recalled the start of WWII and how for the first time in history a foreign enemy had taken a war to the British soil. He described the feeling in Ireland as mixed - in one sense they knew if England fell, Ireland would be next. On the other hand he described a strong sentiment of satisfaction amongst many irish as “after 800 years of having the boot on someone else’s throat how does it feel when it’s on yours?”

My father wasn’t a vindictive or overly political man (in fact the only thing he ever said about politics was “wherever you go be against the government”) he was just sharing his experience during yet another challenging time in Irish history.

[niamhmcallister]

In Ireland when we're taught about this it's unequivocally described as a genocide, I always find it so interesting other countries don't. The intentional shipping of all sorts of food from the island to systematically weaken the country, the blight killed the potato but the British created the famine

[derrickliga]

My great great great grandparents came over due to the famine. My GGG Grandma and her brother were put on a coffin ship by her parents. Her mom and dad had to stay behind in Ireland and starved to death but their kids were able to survive in the US and carry on the family line

[bushmanPMRR]

I'm an Englishman who married an Irish lady and when she first told me about the famine I was stunned and shocked. We were never taught anything about this at school and for me, famine was something that happened in Africa or Asia, not on our own doorstep.
There's a great song by The Dubliners called The Fields Of Athenry which uses the famine as its subject matter and is well worth a listen to.
A few years ago we were very fortunate to be able to move from London to a beautiful spot in Kilkenny, Ireland and I doubt I'd ever move back to England as I love it here so much.
Funny thing is, with my accent the only anti British /English comment I've ever had was from a German!

[ItsAVolcano]

Gotta love the British exporting record amounts of wheat out of Ireland while simultaneously arguing the Irish died purely from their own inherent laziness.😒

[surpriseandterror]

Something wild to note: Ireland's population still hasn't recovered from the Irish potato famine and the exodus that resulted.

[gingerandbroke]

To get soup in some of the soup kitchens you'd have to give up your Irish name for an Anglican one. And those road work projects are known as Famine Roads where many were worked to death and thrown into the ditch.

[Hannah-hxsp]

I live in Ulster / Northern Ireland. The very back end of my local (former) hospital site has a mass grave from this era, it was a workhouse. Mass grave for all the nameless, poor workers. Extremely sad and it has such a dark and tragic aura about it (i dont like being there at night, it is 100% haunted). At the very least, out of respect, the NHS has not built over it. Just a big memorial stone on a very large patch of grass.

[nbsalsa]

The blight killed the potatoes the British caused the famine

[Patricia-zqug]

My great-great-grandmother came to Canada through Ellis Island in the 1840s with 9 children. None of them ever became rich, but they made lives for themselves and in 1852 my great-grandfather married and soon owned land and raised his own large family. Thank goodness they were able to emigrate!

[seanh]

I've been waiting for this one. Wanted to see how an Englishman would tell the story. You did quite well to be fair, couple of little things glossed over like having to revoke your religion and become protestant to have the soup in some of the soup kitchens. Many god fearing people would choose death before doing something so blasphemous. I'd be interested to hear how much of this information, if any, is taught in schools in the UK.

[larrymullins]

Thank you for covering this . I live in Australia, but when I was home last I visited 2 famine grave yards with a friend. These were only a few miles outside our town in the county . There was a notice on the ruined walls of an old stone church. It said for every one headstone you see here there are probably 50 other un marked graves ... it was a very large derelict grave yard only a few minutes walk off the current main road...

[briantimmons]

It was so preventable, which is probably the saddest thing.

[falcokunzy]

Simon: “Experts believe the soup kitchens disprove British committed genocide.”

Also Simon: “The British deliberately stopped the soup kitchens.”

It’s genocide.

[joanhuffman]

Simon says Ireland grew corn to sell to England. Corn defined as a general term for cereal grains, is what they grew.
Video shows sweet corn 🌽, which was not grown in Ireland at that time.