Decent Overview of Famine Years, But there Are Better

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	• Paddy's Lament, Ireland 1846-1847: Prelude to Hatred Thomas Gallagher Harvest Books, 1987 - 372 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

~ Shame on the Brits~

Without exaggeration I can say this is one of the best books I have ever read. This well written investigation and revelation of the near termination of the Irish people during the potato famine at the hands of the British is one that should be read by all interested in history.The cruel history of Ireland under rule of England is throughly laid out here. Even the African American slave was treated better by his slave masters in America in that he was fed the waste and guts of hogs, the Irish were left to starve slowly to death. Can England ever be forgiven of her crimes against this humanity, the Irish ? Pity those that stood in judgement before a just God. This book should be required reading in all high school history classes. Pity my poor ancestors...God rest their souls.

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Decent Overview of Famine Years, But there Are Better

Thomas Gallagher sets out to recount the events of the worst two years of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland and in doing so find the roots of Irish hatred of the British in this approachable book.

Gallagher's book is set out in three distinct sections. In the first he recounts the history of English domination in Ireland focusing especially on the basis for the economic disparities between the landed gentry in Ireland and the majority of the native Irish -- disparities that were in existance for centuries and only began to fade away during the latter half of the 20th century.

From here he does a fairly good job of recounting the events and history of the potato blight itself and the horrors that were created by the failure of the potato crop and the inaction and lack of response of the British authorities to do anything about it.

In these first two parts of the book, Gallagher sets forth an approachable and fairly good recounting of the events of this period. Although relying heavily on other secondary sources, this is a reliable summary of this period, especially for someone unfamiliar with Irish history, especially the history of this dark period in Ireland.

However, in the third part of the book Gallagher strays greatly from "history" and delves into something more along the lines of historical fiction, and bad historical fiction at that. In this final part of the book, Gallagher reconstructs events that occurred on many of the immigrant ships taking Irish fleeing from starvation to new opportunities in America. In doing this, he uses the device of following three immigrants who met on the boat and detailing their story from Ireland to the ship itself and then following them as they settle in New York. He essentially makes up the events, conversations and situations that these three encounter.

The devices used by the author in the final part of this book detract greatly from the book as a whole. The worst part about this final chapter is how greatly it strays from the format of the rest of the book. It is as if the author ran out of research material and just relied on his imagination to fill out the rest of the book.

That being said, the book on whole is not bad. I would recommend it for readers who have a passing interest in this period in Irish history and want an overview of the awful events of this time. For those looking for a more complete and encompassing history, check out Cecil Woodham-Smith's "The Great Hunger".

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What I didn't learn in high school...

I am not an expert on Irish history or even particularly well-read about it, but this book caught my attention. Actually, my interest had been sparked by a song by Sinead O'Connor titled "Famine" and its claim that there "never really was one." Her point was that there was enough food for the Irish but that it was sent to England while the Irish starved. It was a good song but left me wondering if that wasn't an oversimplified account and a gross overstatement of British culpability. This book not only supports O'Connor's assertions, it details them using diaries, letters, and other documents to support its claims. I found myself wondering, why didn't anyone tell me about this before? I never heard or read anything about it when I was a student, and Social Studies was one of the two classes I was most interested in. Now, as a teacher, I look at the five world history textbooks and I see why. In the five books combined there are 19 pages about the Holocaust, 24 pages about slavery in America- and 3 paragraphs about the Irish Potato Famine. I'm not saying the books shouldn't spend significant time on the Holocaust and slavery (I'd like to see them address these two issues in greater detail), and I'm not suggesting there should be an entire chapter on the famine-but I do think schools should teach about the way the Irish Catholics were forced to send food to England, were forced to tithe the Anglican church, the British were slow to respond to the crisis and provided a flavored soup nearly devoid of nutrition, and the way the Irish were exploited to take "coffin ships" to America. Unless/until the textbooks cover this topic in more detail, let's hope more people stumble upon this book and others like it.

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Paddy's Lament - A Must Read

This is an incredibly detailed and descriptive account of what actually happened during those years of the potato famine where the Irish suffered unbelievably inhumane treatment from Britain. There is too much to possibly comment on in this short space. It is an absolutely fabulous book, written very well, and is a great start for anyone digging into Irish history wanting to get right to the point of things. Simply put: Its a must read! I actually walked away feeling proud of my Irish Catholic Heritage for what they survived, but ashamed of the English Protestant in me.

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Paddy's Lament, Ireland 1846-1847

I was very happy dealing with this company. My book arrived when they said it would

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Ireland in the mid-1800s was primarily a population of peasants, forced to live on a single, moderately nutritious crop: potatoes. Suddenly, in 1846, an unknown and uncontrollable disease turned the potato crop to inedible slime, and all Ireland was threatened. Index.

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