The Famine and Other Bits

That's how they talk, the English, it's bits of everything. Other bits like working in a hostel- the cleaning up bit is mopping and vacuuming and washing the sheets, not very intense, and the fun bit is in meeting people from everywhere. An elderly couple from New Zealand is here, leaving today to move on northward, another month to go on their four month sojourn. Motorcyclists from England, bicyclists from France...

Ireland. In my mind, a morphing concept. The famine was 150 years ago, but people still carry the scars, even across generations. Today's news still reflects the anger- at the conditions that contributed to the famine. Beyond the religious persecution, there was outright opression. My host, Sean, (30-something) says he has always had the feeling when he eats that he must hurry, that it might be taken away. Sean works the farm, tending cattle in the little walled pastures that have been in his family for many generations. He lived in New York for 13 years, but returned to Ireland when his father became ill.

Reading about the famine, it becomes clear to me that the potato blight was only the lst straw of an already unbearable situation. Tenant farmers were no more than slaves to the landed gentry- creating wealth for the landlords who lived in England. Their own take of the product of their toil was so reduced, that potatoes was all they could afford, or had the wherewithall to raise. They were living in deprivation before the blight which had been a recurring problem for decades, but became more frequent and devastating. Meanwhile all other food produced in Ireland was shipped elsewhere.

The response of the English rulers was denial that there was a problem, then evictions as the farmers became a liability for one reason or another, then 'poorhouses' as they streamed into the cities desperate for food. 20% of the population died or left on 'coffin ships' for Australia, Canada, the U.S.- and more died in the horrible conditions on the ships, or of disease after they arrived. In this area of Galway, 30 % of the population was lost- and even in the city there was a population decrease, while other cirties like Belfast and Dublin had swelled from migrant evictees and starving farmers.

One particular trend that continues to be a sore spot was the practice at the time of some protestant churches to offer help, as in food, if the catholic farmers would just come to the protestant church.

I recall back on Arran Island (Scotland) the stories of the 'clearances' meaning evictions as small produce farms were lumped into bigger sheep farms. I have since read that the tax laws changed at about the same time, to favor larger parcels, and this contributed to the eviction rate.

These are my impressions, and not necesarily fact- but I am most impressed with my own ignorance, somehow buying it that it was a simple matter of a potato disease that caused all the problems. There may well be another side to it, but I think oppressive treatment of the whole popluation of Ireland was a pretty clear fact.

Reading about W.B. Yeats has fit in with my thoughts- he was born in 1869, not long after the famine, and was a major part in the fight for home rule for Ireland, even though he had close connections in and with England.

He had a passion for Irish mythology, for the occult, for Irish freedom (and for certain women). I still wonder how it would be to live a life being so clear as to what it is you are passionate about. I find Yeats inspirational mostly for his ability to find ideas and to persevere on them- something I could learn to do someday?