Morrill, John S. "Ireland, History of." World Book Advanced . World Book, 2012.Web. 31 Oct. 2012.

Morrill, John S. "Ireland, History of." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2012.Web. 31 Oct. 2012. The Great Irish Famine. In 1801, the population of Ireland was about 5 million. By 1841, it had risen to more than 8 million. There were few industries, so the country depended largely on agriculture. As the population grew, farms decreased in size. Most of the people lived as tenants on small farms. They had to give much of what they produced to their landlords as rent. Most of the tenant farmers struggled to survive on what was left from their production. Because of their poverty, many of the Irish people depended largely on potatoes for food. Some raised animals and grew grain to pay their rents. In 1845, 1846, and 1848, blight (disease) affected the potato crop throughout the country. The potatoes rotted, and millions of people faced starvation. The British prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, introduced relief plans in the poorest areas. These plans were meant to help people earn enough money to buy grain that the government imported from the United States. But these measures were inadequate, and the next government, under Lord John Russell, had to distribute food free of charge. These relief measures were also inadequate. Hundreds of thousands of people died. As a result of the Great Famine, the population of the country dropped from 81/4 million to 61/2 million. Historians believe that a million people died of hunger and disease. Millions emigrated, most of them to the United States and Canada. They left Ireland with bitterness in their hearts, believing that the United Kingdom was the cause of all their suffering.

"Emigration To North America In 1847 - Following the Famine." Emigration To North America In 1847 - Following the Famine. Irish Famine.ca, 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://irishfamine.ca/passage-to-the-americas/emigration-to-north-america-in-1847>. The Irish were in the worst condition upon arrival at Grosse Isle. "An eye-witness called it the Isle of Death, and found a strange contrast of beauty and suffering, of levity and sorrow", wrote Guillet, in his book The Great Migration.

Famine, Artist: Rowan Gillespie

Digging, Seamus Heaney Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where he was digging. The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Against the inside knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep To scatter new potatoes that we picked, Loving their cool hardness in our hands. By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man. My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner’s bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, going down and down For the good turf. Digging. The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I’ve no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it.

Famine, Sinead O’Connor School go on about "Black 47"On and on about "The terrible "famine""But what they don't say is in truthThere really never was oneSo let's take a look shall weThe highest statistics of child abuse in the EECAnd we say we're a Christian countryBut we've lost contact with our historySee we used to worship God as a motherWe're sufferin from POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDERLook at all our old men in the pubsLook at all our young people on drugsWe used to worship God as a motherNow look at what we're doing to each otherWe've even made killers of ourselvesThe most child-like trusting people in the Universe ALCOHOLISM DRUG ADICTIONAll desperate attempts at runningAnd in it's worst formBecomes actual killingAnd if there ever is gonna be healingThere has to be rememberingAnd then grievingSo that there then can be forgivingThere has to be knowledge and understandingAn American army regulationSays you mustn't kill more than 10% of a nation'Cos to do so causes permanent "psychological damage“ It's not permanent but they didn't know thatAnyway during the supposed "famine"We lost a lot more than 10% of a nationThrough deaths on land or on ships of emigrationBut what finally broke us was not starvationBUT IT'S USE IN THE CONTROLLING OF OUR EDUCATION And this is what's wrong with usOur history books THE PARENT FIGURES lied to usI see the IrishAs a race like a childThat got itself bashed in the faceAnd if there ever is gonna be healingThere has to be rememberingAnd then grievingSo that there then can be FORGIVINGThere has to be KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING OK, I want to talk about IrelandSpecifically I want to talk about the "famine"About the fact that there never really was oneThere was no "famine"See Irish people were only ALLOWED to eat potatoesAll of the other foodMeat fish vegetablesWere shipped out of the country under armed guardTo England while the Irish people starvedAnd then on the middle of all thisThey gave us money not to teach our children IrishAnd so we lost our historyAnd this is what I think is still hurting meSee we're like a child that's been batteredHas to drive itself out of it's head because it's frightened Still feels all the painful feelingsBut they lose contact with the memoryAnd this leads to massive self-destruction

Photo & poem citations • Checa, Thierry G. The Famine Statues, Dublin. 2008. Photograph. Dublin, Ireland. Flickr. Yahoo! Inc. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. • Heaney, Seamus. "Digging." By Seamus Heaney : The Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177017>. • O'Connor, Sinead. Famine. Sinead O'Connor. Sinead O'Connor, John Reynolds, Tim Simenon, and Phil Coulter, 1994. CD

Morrill, John S. "Ireland, History of." World Book Advanced . World Book, 2012.Web. 31 Oct. 2012.