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Paddy's Lament: Ireland 1846-47
Recounts the great famine of 1846 and shows how it influenced the history of Ireland, England, and the United States
345 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Thomas Gallagher
75 books10 followersThomas Gallagher (1918-1992) was a widely published journalist and the author of eight books. His novel The Gathering Darkness (1952) was nominated for a National Book Award; his Fire at Sea: The Story of the Moro Castle (1959) won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for nonfiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
July 29, 2021
Several books have been written about the awful Irish Famine of the 1840s, but they either go on and on about the entire Irish diaspora or focus on British excuses. This book is a compact history of the why behind the devastation of nineteenth-century Ireland with a clear focus on the victims and how the famine sent an entire generation of Irish peasants overseas to find new homes in other countries.
In a nutshell, for those who aren’t aware of the history, the Irish Famine killed at least two million Irish, which was one-quarter of the entire population of Ireland! The country was very arable, almost three-quarters farmed for grains, which were then shipped to Great Britain to feed the people there. The Irish workers did not receive those allotments of food, as their British overseers owned the estates and the crops, so the basic Irish tenant had to live on tiny lots which only had room for the simplest product of agriculture…the potato. Known as a miracle root vegetable because it could be planted in sandy and loamy areas which would reject other plants, the potato could feed an entire Irish family. The potato was an import from the Americas, so it thrived easily in the centuries since being discovered, without any known disease. This success also meant a lack of diversity of potato varieties in Europe, so that when the deadly fungus arrived in Ireland in 1845, nothing would ever be the same for the Irish potato again. As they say, never put all your eggs in one basket.
A terrible sense of danger and dread descended on the land like the thick fog that covered the countryside on the fatal night, the fog that people in Ireland still speak of as the “potato fog”.
The North American fungus came during a time of strange weather variations in Ireland. People remembered the strangely quiet mists that stayed on the ground, quiet because birds stopped singing and there was an eerie sense of something not being right. Soon, potato crops were turning bad, blackened and smelling of rotting roots. The fungus attacked the soil, not the potato, which meant there was no way to save the product. A farmer couldn’t just move the crop to another patch of land, for everything was infected. The fungus hit Europe in general, but unlike the other countries, Ireland was so dependent upon the food staple, it meant catastrophe.
The famine hit hard and it hit quickly, not helped by the British lack of response. The starving peasants were still expected to pay their rents to their British landlords and they still had to pay tithes to the Protestant clergy, despite never going into a Protestant church. Starvation led to disease (typhus, dysentery) which led to more deaths. Entire families obliterated. Unable to work or eat, the Irish peasants would find themselves turned out of their hovels, which would then be destroyed by the landlords so the land could be opened up for more livestock. The Brits didn’t care, as they preferred Ireland as a pastoral abode. The fewer Irish, the better. As Alfred Lord Tennyson himself wrote, ”Could not anyone blow up that horrible island with dynamite and carry it off in pieces – a long way off?”
If the Brits refused to help, the Americans would. While starving Irish workers exported food to Britain in one direction, Americans were shipping supplies to Ireland from the other direction. The United States and Canada both represented lands of opportunity, so the Irish left their homes en masse to establish roots in new lands. The Americans were held up as almost mythical as, unlike Canada, they were the only country not beholden to the Brits. And the American West, where one had to crouch to let the sun go down, was the ultimate destination, although most Irish emigrants would never make it that far. Enter the “coffin ships”. In rickety boats, the majority of Irish left their homeland forever. The ships owned by Brits did not meet health or safety standards, which led to high percentages of Irish emigrants ending up in the Atlantic instead of the American East Coast.
For the famine they were trying to escape was not in the exact and truest sense a famine, and all aboard knew it. The only failure was the potato crop, their food, the food of the poor, the only food allowed them according to the horrid scheme called “political economy”.
This was one heck of a read. The author’s father was an Irish emigrant, first to London and then to the United States. Because his father never spoke poorly of the Brits, the author didn’t grow up with an abiding hatred of England, the way his classmates did. It’s this lack of bias which makes the book so engaging, as Thomas Gallagher really puts the focus on the victims themselves, without huge chapters on politics or which Anglo-Irish personage was selling out their own countrymen. The chapter on the transatlantic voyage was especially harrowing, it felt as though I was on the ship with the poor people. Imagine being barely alive from lack of food (they were expected to bring their own), then having to live in filthy quarters belowdecks, all the while braving weeks or months of sailing. Vermin brought disease. Seasickness brought stench. I even felt bad for the American authorities who always knew when a British coffin ship was arriving because of the way the ship captains would try to disguise the deaths and illnesses. Horrible.
When we are out to sea, we look back to see faces
ringing the shore like a fence, those we love in up
to their hips in waves, waving goodbye like mad.
(Kerrin McCadden – IN THE HARBOR)
Book Season = Spring (famine silence)
In a nutshell, for those who aren’t aware of the history, the Irish Famine killed at least two million Irish, which was one-quarter of the entire population of Ireland! The country was very arable, almost three-quarters farmed for grains, which were then shipped to Great Britain to feed the people there. The Irish workers did not receive those allotments of food, as their British overseers owned the estates and the crops, so the basic Irish tenant had to live on tiny lots which only had room for the simplest product of agriculture…the potato. Known as a miracle root vegetable because it could be planted in sandy and loamy areas which would reject other plants, the potato could feed an entire Irish family. The potato was an import from the Americas, so it thrived easily in the centuries since being discovered, without any known disease. This success also meant a lack of diversity of potato varieties in Europe, so that when the deadly fungus arrived in Ireland in 1845, nothing would ever be the same for the Irish potato again. As they say, never put all your eggs in one basket.
A terrible sense of danger and dread descended on the land like the thick fog that covered the countryside on the fatal night, the fog that people in Ireland still speak of as the “potato fog”.
The North American fungus came during a time of strange weather variations in Ireland. People remembered the strangely quiet mists that stayed on the ground, quiet because birds stopped singing and there was an eerie sense of something not being right. Soon, potato crops were turning bad, blackened and smelling of rotting roots. The fungus attacked the soil, not the potato, which meant there was no way to save the product. A farmer couldn’t just move the crop to another patch of land, for everything was infected. The fungus hit Europe in general, but unlike the other countries, Ireland was so dependent upon the food staple, it meant catastrophe.
The famine hit hard and it hit quickly, not helped by the British lack of response. The starving peasants were still expected to pay their rents to their British landlords and they still had to pay tithes to the Protestant clergy, despite never going into a Protestant church. Starvation led to disease (typhus, dysentery) which led to more deaths. Entire families obliterated. Unable to work or eat, the Irish peasants would find themselves turned out of their hovels, which would then be destroyed by the landlords so the land could be opened up for more livestock. The Brits didn’t care, as they preferred Ireland as a pastoral abode. The fewer Irish, the better. As Alfred Lord Tennyson himself wrote, ”Could not anyone blow up that horrible island with dynamite and carry it off in pieces – a long way off?”
If the Brits refused to help, the Americans would. While starving Irish workers exported food to Britain in one direction, Americans were shipping supplies to Ireland from the other direction. The United States and Canada both represented lands of opportunity, so the Irish left their homes en masse to establish roots in new lands. The Americans were held up as almost mythical as, unlike Canada, they were the only country not beholden to the Brits. And the American West, where one had to crouch to let the sun go down, was the ultimate destination, although most Irish emigrants would never make it that far. Enter the “coffin ships”. In rickety boats, the majority of Irish left their homeland forever. The ships owned by Brits did not meet health or safety standards, which led to high percentages of Irish emigrants ending up in the Atlantic instead of the American East Coast.
For the famine they were trying to escape was not in the exact and truest sense a famine, and all aboard knew it. The only failure was the potato crop, their food, the food of the poor, the only food allowed them according to the horrid scheme called “political economy”.
This was one heck of a read. The author’s father was an Irish emigrant, first to London and then to the United States. Because his father never spoke poorly of the Brits, the author didn’t grow up with an abiding hatred of England, the way his classmates did. It’s this lack of bias which makes the book so engaging, as Thomas Gallagher really puts the focus on the victims themselves, without huge chapters on politics or which Anglo-Irish personage was selling out their own countrymen. The chapter on the transatlantic voyage was especially harrowing, it felt as though I was on the ship with the poor people. Imagine being barely alive from lack of food (they were expected to bring their own), then having to live in filthy quarters belowdecks, all the while braving weeks or months of sailing. Vermin brought disease. Seasickness brought stench. I even felt bad for the American authorities who always knew when a British coffin ship was arriving because of the way the ship captains would try to disguise the deaths and illnesses. Horrible.
When we are out to sea, we look back to see faces
ringing the shore like a fence, those we love in up
to their hips in waves, waving goodbye like mad.
(Kerrin McCadden – IN THE HARBOR)
Book Season = Spring (famine silence)
September 22, 2009
This book will make you cry. I learned about the Irish Famine in history class years ago, but Gallagher makes it come alive. The suffering was enormous, and he says it's now considered the worst famine of the 19th century. As if the famine itself wasn't bad enough, the conditions on the "coffin ships" that brought Irish emigrants to America were appalling. A quarter of the people died en route. What broke my heart to read were the descriptions of how important it was to the Irish to have a decent burial, and even the poorest of the poor kept a little money hidden away for their funeral, so they could be buried in consecrated ground. During the famine, conditions got so bad that people were buried in mass graves, without even a prayer said over them, and others were buried at sea. Both of these were affronts to the Irish view of death. Not to mention the fact that so many had to emigrate to America, knowing that they would never go back to Ireland, and would be buried in a strange land. You alternate between rage at the British and heartbreak for the victims of this terrible famine.
June 8, 2009
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.
October 3, 2015
No doubt we've all heard of the Irish potato famine. But I'd bet unless you're a direct descendant of those affected, or a history buff, you have no real concept of the horrors of the famine, the role of England's parliament and the media, and the aftermath that shook Ireland for more than 100 years after. I think this book should be mandatory reading for all high school students, not just for the history, but as a tool for critical discussion of moral, political and social issues that are utterly contemporary.
November 2, 2020
El libro explica uno de los hechos más tristes de la historia de Irlanda, la hambruna de 1846 debido a una enfermedad de la patata, mildiu, provocada por el hongo Phytophtora infestans, que asoló todas las plantaciones de patata, dejando a los irlandeses en la pobreza sin nada que comer y siendo la causa de la emigración masiva de irlandeses a Estados Unidos. El libro también es una crítica a la actitud de Gran Bretaña con los irlandeses, que agravó aún más su sufrimiento y ha sido motivo de resentimiento por parte de estos por muchas generaciones.
March 7, 2019
It’s Irish Heritage Month. It’s also the start of Lent for our family. This book will have you in tears at times. Our family finished it on Ash Wednesday. Seemed very fitting.
Highly recommend as I truly believe a large forgotten Irish history population gets zero attention in public schools. So, if you are looking to start somewhere with your kids, this is a great, realistic & yet dark start.
Highly recommend as I truly believe a large forgotten Irish history population gets zero attention in public schools. So, if you are looking to start somewhere with your kids, this is a great, realistic & yet dark start.
March 7, 2015
Painful to read. Very extensive research judging by the bibliography and end notes. Such negative generalizations made about the Catholic Irish back then. Same thing going on today, just a different nationality and religion. Do we never learn?!
October 21, 2025
AI is going to destroy the compulsion to produce thorough, specific works of history like this. But we should care to keep producing them. This is history told by a human, and it is GRAND.
Paddy’s Lament tells the story of the Irish potato famine, interwoven with references to pop culture, Shakespeare, and deep archival resources. There are insights in this book that only exist in the manner articulated here.
Gallagher’s narrative represents the epitome of successful archival research and storytelling. It is also a reminder to pursue an understanding of niche moments in history beyond hearing about them in the short-form (e.g. a TikTok or a Ted Talk).
Paddy’s Lament tells the story of the Irish potato famine, interwoven with references to pop culture, Shakespeare, and deep archival resources. There are insights in this book that only exist in the manner articulated here.
Gallagher’s narrative represents the epitome of successful archival research and storytelling. It is also a reminder to pursue an understanding of niche moments in history beyond hearing about them in the short-form (e.g. a TikTok or a Ted Talk).
March 31, 2008
The potato famine in Ireland starting in 1846 killed over a million Irish, more from disease than starvation and sent many hundreds of thousands across the ocean to the United States and Canada.
In Paddy’s Lament, Thomas Gallagher does an outstanding job of relating the story of the blight, famine and exodus. The book is highly engaging and carries the reader along at a fast pace, as horrible as the events are. Gallagher’s inclusion of statistics, newspaper articles, letters and eyewitness testimony coupled with his use of invented but appropriate dialogue makes the read well rounded and engaging. His attention to detail and in depth examination of life in Ireland, aboard the British ships that took the Irish across the ocean and life in New York and other U.S. cities is informative and extraordinary. You get a strong sense of who these people were and what their motivation was as well as a great deal of respect for the strong, good natured and resilient 1800’s Irish. You also get the full and horrible realization that the English government, who ruled Ireland at the time, differed little from Germany’s Nazis in the 1940’s. Perhaps the main difference is the Nazis were direct in their extermination, whereas the English government murdered slowly through laws and poor governing. This also explains the deep seated hatred of the Irish towards the English, unlike the discrimination of the English toward the Irish, which seems to have no explanation other than ignorance.
Paddy’s Lament is well written, moving and educational and serves as an excellent way to better understand the Irish Potato Famine.
In Paddy’s Lament, Thomas Gallagher does an outstanding job of relating the story of the blight, famine and exodus. The book is highly engaging and carries the reader along at a fast pace, as horrible as the events are. Gallagher’s inclusion of statistics, newspaper articles, letters and eyewitness testimony coupled with his use of invented but appropriate dialogue makes the read well rounded and engaging. His attention to detail and in depth examination of life in Ireland, aboard the British ships that took the Irish across the ocean and life in New York and other U.S. cities is informative and extraordinary. You get a strong sense of who these people were and what their motivation was as well as a great deal of respect for the strong, good natured and resilient 1800’s Irish. You also get the full and horrible realization that the English government, who ruled Ireland at the time, differed little from Germany’s Nazis in the 1940’s. Perhaps the main difference is the Nazis were direct in their extermination, whereas the English government murdered slowly through laws and poor governing. This also explains the deep seated hatred of the Irish towards the English, unlike the discrimination of the English toward the Irish, which seems to have no explanation other than ignorance.
Paddy’s Lament is well written, moving and educational and serves as an excellent way to better understand the Irish Potato Famine.
February 12, 2016
I was somewhat familiar with the real story behind the so-called potato famine in Ireland but I was unaware of just how evil the British government was until I read Paddy's Lament. To allow approximately 1/4 of the people of Ireland to die of starvation when there was an abundance of food in the country was an absolutely unspeakable crime. One wonders if Joseph Stalin was inspired by the British government. Anyone who can read this book and not be angry isn't of Irish ancestry.
The author takes the reader through the potato blight with its resulting starvation and associated disease to the Irish diaspora. It is hard to fathom that there were people in England who celebrated what happened to the Irish. That members of the Anglican clergy in Ireland were happy that the Irish were either dying or leaving the country in droves. The reader finds out that even when people were able to leave Ireland the nightmare continued for the poor souls who traveled to the U.S. and Canda in British ships which were said to be as bad as slave ships.
Due to my Irish ancestry I have never been an admirer of the occupiers of my ancestral home, but now? There no words to describe the animosity I feel toward the British government.
The author takes the reader through the potato blight with its resulting starvation and associated disease to the Irish diaspora. It is hard to fathom that there were people in England who celebrated what happened to the Irish. That members of the Anglican clergy in Ireland were happy that the Irish were either dying or leaving the country in droves. The reader finds out that even when people were able to leave Ireland the nightmare continued for the poor souls who traveled to the U.S. and Canda in British ships which were said to be as bad as slave ships.
Due to my Irish ancestry I have never been an admirer of the occupiers of my ancestral home, but now? There no words to describe the animosity I feel toward the British government.
December 6, 2008
This was the first book I read of this period in history. It was fascinating and heartbreaking. Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Someday I hope that humans will learn they can't treat one another this way.
March 9, 2013
Fantastic but harrowing read. Would highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn the truth about the Irish Famine
March 17, 2013
I now understand the Irish animosity toward the British. This book is an important read for anyone of Irish extraction.
April 17, 2013
Every single person of Irish descent should read this book. Hands down one of the best - and most painful - slices of history I have ever read.
June 2, 2013
Three and a half stars. (If you ever want to know what the Irish have against the English, I suggest starting with this book.)
October 17, 2026
I found this book in a Little Library near our house. It was the original edition, or nearly, from the 1980s. I'm more or less 100% Irish and my father's family almost certainly came over during or immediately following the great famine. I've always wanted to understand this period in the history of my ancestors and this was the perfect book to fill all of that in.
It was truly heart-rending to read most of it. The starvation, the disease that followed, the cruel evictions, the death and suffering, the unbelievably filthy conditions of the trans-Atlantic voyages to escape all of this, all of which could have been prevented through some pretty simple actions by the British government who were in charge.
Gallagher makes the case that this was essentially a bid at genocide by the British. They wanted the Irish Catholic peasants out of the way so that they could steal their land, and mother nature gave them the perfect opportunity. All they had to do was... nothing at all really.
I remember growing up in the 80s and sensing that something wasn't quite right with Irish Catholics and England. It took me a long time to understand some of the dynamics. This book really gave me an excellent perspective on that. It's no wonder really that the rage festered for so long. And this was long before the uprising and the troubles, but it set the stage for all that.
The last part of the book focused on New York City in the mid-19th century and was extremely fascinating. At some points, you sort of forgot you were reading about Irish emigration, and found yourself instead reading a history of Manhattan. Nevertheless, Gallagher explains some really unique and interesting aspects of the city at that time. For example, I had never heard that pigs used to roam the streets to eat up all the garbage tossed into the gutter daily. And the problem of horse manure, and how it was dealt with was kind of mind-blowing. And, er, "night soil" . You'll find out.
All in all I really enjoyed reading this book. It brought me closer to my ancestors and gave me newfound respect for them and all they had to go through to give me the life I have.
It was truly heart-rending to read most of it. The starvation, the disease that followed, the cruel evictions, the death and suffering, the unbelievably filthy conditions of the trans-Atlantic voyages to escape all of this, all of which could have been prevented through some pretty simple actions by the British government who were in charge.
Gallagher makes the case that this was essentially a bid at genocide by the British. They wanted the Irish Catholic peasants out of the way so that they could steal their land, and mother nature gave them the perfect opportunity. All they had to do was... nothing at all really.
I remember growing up in the 80s and sensing that something wasn't quite right with Irish Catholics and England. It took me a long time to understand some of the dynamics. This book really gave me an excellent perspective on that. It's no wonder really that the rage festered for so long. And this was long before the uprising and the troubles, but it set the stage for all that.
The last part of the book focused on New York City in the mid-19th century and was extremely fascinating. At some points, you sort of forgot you were reading about Irish emigration, and found yourself instead reading a history of Manhattan. Nevertheless, Gallagher explains some really unique and interesting aspects of the city at that time. For example, I had never heard that pigs used to roam the streets to eat up all the garbage tossed into the gutter daily. And the problem of horse manure, and how it was dealt with was kind of mind-blowing. And, er, "night soil" . You'll find out.
All in all I really enjoyed reading this book. It brought me closer to my ancestors and gave me newfound respect for them and all they had to go through to give me the life I have.
February 6, 2018
Wonderful thorough research, well written - it gives the story of the Irish famine with heart wrenching agony so that people never forget what the Irish Catholic population went through and why - this was not an accidental famine caused by the potato blight, but a deliberate attempt to get rid of a group of people that the British people considered less than human.
A must read for anyone who cares about humanity.
A must read for anyone who cares about humanity.
October 21, 2021
I read this book at the request of my Dad. This is an absolutely heartbreaking account of the Irish famine and mass immigration to America. It’s a very thorough and detailed account, at times difficult to read. The saddest part for me was the realization that it was entirely preventable. The English let the Irish starve and disease to take hold, while they exported all other crops and livestock.
February 13, 2025
every single page of this book was incredibly difficult to get through - the sorrow, the pain, the hopelessness, etc had me in tears a majority of the time. an absolute must read, especially for americans claiming irish heritage. our families deserve to have their stories heard, remembered, and retold. one of the best books i’ve ever read, and quite possibly the most emotional
March 20, 2010
Holy crap...that was hard to read. Important, but difficult. If you need to have another example of oppression that you can use to see the oppression you impose upon others (that's partly what I used it for..it is easy to draw parallels up to the present moment), and/ or if you want to learn how deeply British oppression of Irish people actually goes, this is probably a good tip of the iceberg to begin with.
The author, Thomas Gallagher, begins in the preface by describing what it was like having Irish parents and growing up in the US without constantly hearing anti-British sentiment being thrown about in his family--his parents had been treated well by some English folks in the past. Imagine then his feelings of perplexity when in the Irish-American neighborhood in which he grew up, all he heard was kids trashing the British. He wondered why they had so much hate--as an adult, he endeavored to find out, researching in hundreds of books, newspapers, and other publications of the day, the day being the endless night of the Great Famine in Ireland of the 1840's, known to some as the Great Starvation.
With excruciating detail, Gallagher describes, based on his research, daily life for Irish people who experienced the famine, from the first anxieties of those who found their potatoes rotting in the fields to the details of the physical deterioration of those starving to death or dying of diseases spread by lice that the people did not know were spreading them. From people who were forced out of their homes and made to watch their homes be "tumbled" (aka, destroyed with battering rams) to those who eventually were forced onto ships traveling to the US. A good portion of the second half of the book is dedicated to rewriting an account of one particular group of immigrants on a particular ship, the Mersey, and the torture they endured for 8 agonizing weeks to get to the US. Gallagher spares no detail in description here, or anywhere else in the book, from the cramped and uncomfortably close quarters to accommodate 350 people to the fact that the two privvies were located on the top deck so that when there was a storm, no one was allowed up from below to use them. Other passengers were physically unable to get above deck anyway, and the way the ship was constructed, there was no way for anyone to dump their waste off the ship unless they hauled it to the top deck. Some people died because of these paltry accommodations on their way to what could've been a better quality of life than what they left behind.
Gallagher also details the various blunders, excuses, ignorance, and all-out hatred for the Irish by the British that allowed them the extremely erroneous moral grounds upon which they stood and time after time, decided to CONTINUE importing food from Ireland while millions of Irish people starved to death. Many Irish folks did not have enough money or a job to afford to pay rent to their British or Irish landlords, who most likely showed up and took the land ownership out from under a family built upon generations and generations of Irish people living there, then said pay me or get out. So they had to pay with food instead, or be forced off their land. And if they were forced off their land, there was no way for them to get food--the British provided nothing in compensation for importing the food or destroying the homes of the Irish. The only thing that was done in the beginning for the people was something called a "workhouse," which, as described, was more of a death house. The majority of these houses worked physically able people to death, literally, and provided very little nourishment if any. Most people at these houses were diseased and spread the illness quickly to others because of poor accommodations.
This situation reminded me very much of what happened when Europeans came to what is now the United States and forced their way upon the land that had belonged to Native Americans for centuries, then turned around and said pay up or get out. Or they killed them and perpetrated other violent and malicious acts. And those oppressors in both cases turned around and blamed those being oppressed and disenfranchised for their undoing. They're too stupid and ignorant to help themselves, or this is God's will. Some of us still do these things today to others who are oppressed, although we may oppress in more indirect ways. But it was easy for me to connect things like the perpetuation of the US prison industrial complex, and pretty much any institution imposed upon Americans of all demographics, established by my European ancestors as one result of what happened to the Irish (who are also my ancestors) in this account.
The book ends with the experiences of some newly immigrated Irish folks, specifically their time exploring New York City, "fresh off the boat" as they say. Gallagher goes into details of daily living there as well, for the Irish and various other folks, immigrants or not.
Well documented and well written, it is easy for me to see why Gallagher's subtitle to "Paddy's Lament" is "Prelude to Hatred."
The author, Thomas Gallagher, begins in the preface by describing what it was like having Irish parents and growing up in the US without constantly hearing anti-British sentiment being thrown about in his family--his parents had been treated well by some English folks in the past. Imagine then his feelings of perplexity when in the Irish-American neighborhood in which he grew up, all he heard was kids trashing the British. He wondered why they had so much hate--as an adult, he endeavored to find out, researching in hundreds of books, newspapers, and other publications of the day, the day being the endless night of the Great Famine in Ireland of the 1840's, known to some as the Great Starvation.
With excruciating detail, Gallagher describes, based on his research, daily life for Irish people who experienced the famine, from the first anxieties of those who found their potatoes rotting in the fields to the details of the physical deterioration of those starving to death or dying of diseases spread by lice that the people did not know were spreading them. From people who were forced out of their homes and made to watch their homes be "tumbled" (aka, destroyed with battering rams) to those who eventually were forced onto ships traveling to the US. A good portion of the second half of the book is dedicated to rewriting an account of one particular group of immigrants on a particular ship, the Mersey, and the torture they endured for 8 agonizing weeks to get to the US. Gallagher spares no detail in description here, or anywhere else in the book, from the cramped and uncomfortably close quarters to accommodate 350 people to the fact that the two privvies were located on the top deck so that when there was a storm, no one was allowed up from below to use them. Other passengers were physically unable to get above deck anyway, and the way the ship was constructed, there was no way for anyone to dump their waste off the ship unless they hauled it to the top deck. Some people died because of these paltry accommodations on their way to what could've been a better quality of life than what they left behind.
Gallagher also details the various blunders, excuses, ignorance, and all-out hatred for the Irish by the British that allowed them the extremely erroneous moral grounds upon which they stood and time after time, decided to CONTINUE importing food from Ireland while millions of Irish people starved to death. Many Irish folks did not have enough money or a job to afford to pay rent to their British or Irish landlords, who most likely showed up and took the land ownership out from under a family built upon generations and generations of Irish people living there, then said pay me or get out. So they had to pay with food instead, or be forced off their land. And if they were forced off their land, there was no way for them to get food--the British provided nothing in compensation for importing the food or destroying the homes of the Irish. The only thing that was done in the beginning for the people was something called a "workhouse," which, as described, was more of a death house. The majority of these houses worked physically able people to death, literally, and provided very little nourishment if any. Most people at these houses were diseased and spread the illness quickly to others because of poor accommodations.
This situation reminded me very much of what happened when Europeans came to what is now the United States and forced their way upon the land that had belonged to Native Americans for centuries, then turned around and said pay up or get out. Or they killed them and perpetrated other violent and malicious acts. And those oppressors in both cases turned around and blamed those being oppressed and disenfranchised for their undoing. They're too stupid and ignorant to help themselves, or this is God's will. Some of us still do these things today to others who are oppressed, although we may oppress in more indirect ways. But it was easy for me to connect things like the perpetuation of the US prison industrial complex, and pretty much any institution imposed upon Americans of all demographics, established by my European ancestors as one result of what happened to the Irish (who are also my ancestors) in this account.
The book ends with the experiences of some newly immigrated Irish folks, specifically their time exploring New York City, "fresh off the boat" as they say. Gallagher goes into details of daily living there as well, for the Irish and various other folks, immigrants or not.
Well documented and well written, it is easy for me to see why Gallagher's subtitle to "Paddy's Lament" is "Prelude to Hatred."
March 12, 2025
It took me quite a while to get through part 1, as the material is utterly depressing and graphic. I learned a lot from this book and will definitely pass it along to anyone interested.
December 7, 2014
"...although three quarters of Ireland's cultivable land was in "corn" -- a general term that included such grains as wheat, oats, and barley -- almost all of it was shipped to England. The cattle and sheep grazed in Ireland, and the pigs fed, were likewise not eaten in Ireland but sent to Britain for consumption by either the British people or those maintaining her colonies."
"...anything left over was needed for the tithe (one-tenth the value of his produce) to the Anglican church, to which he did not belong."
The potato is "a remarkable source of protein, amino acids, and all the important mineral elements, such as nitrogen, iron, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, chlorine, and potassium...it was capable of preventing scurvy, building and protecting sound teeth, and supplying all the energy needed for a good day's work."
"Even in good years, July was known as 'Hungry July' for the winter supplies were often exhausted before the potatoes were fit to dig."
"During the winter of 1846-47 alone, while over 400,000 persons were dying of famine or famine-related disease, the British government, instead of prohibiting the removal of Irish food from Ireland, allowed seventeen million pounds sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultry to be shipped to England -- enough food to feed, at least during these crucial winter months, twice the almost six million men, women, and children who composed the tenant-farmer and farm-laborer population."
"For every death on board an American ship, there were three on board a British; for every diseased person arriving in America aboard an American ship, there were five aboard a British."
"...anything left over was needed for the tithe (one-tenth the value of his produce) to the Anglican church, to which he did not belong."
The potato is "a remarkable source of protein, amino acids, and all the important mineral elements, such as nitrogen, iron, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, chlorine, and potassium...it was capable of preventing scurvy, building and protecting sound teeth, and supplying all the energy needed for a good day's work."
"Even in good years, July was known as 'Hungry July' for the winter supplies were often exhausted before the potatoes were fit to dig."
"During the winter of 1846-47 alone, while over 400,000 persons were dying of famine or famine-related disease, the British government, instead of prohibiting the removal of Irish food from Ireland, allowed seventeen million pounds sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultry to be shipped to England -- enough food to feed, at least during these crucial winter months, twice the almost six million men, women, and children who composed the tenant-farmer and farm-laborer population."
"For every death on board an American ship, there were three on board a British; for every diseased person arriving in America aboard an American ship, there were five aboard a British."
August 12, 2018
This is the third book I have read about The Great Hunger (aka, The Irish Famine) and it is by far the best. Gallagher's prose is lively and forceful, his descriptions, although at times gut-wrenching, are very good indeed. Though the book is very well documented, he writes as a humanist first and a social scientist second, so the felt quality of the disaster that befell Ireland in the mid-19th century is transmitted to the reader in all its bewilderment, despair, physical and mental misery, and outrage. Several reviewers have commented that this was a hard book to read, and while I think I know what they mean (when Gallagher writes about what diphtheria does to a human body, for example, you may want to set aside any food or drink for awhile), I found it very hard to put down. My only criticism is that in his depiction of the journey of the "coffin ship" the Mersey and the characters he creates to detail the voyage, he crosses a bit over from history into historical fiction, but he does not conceal what he is doing, and in the end it has an effect similar to that of literary journalists like Tom Wolfe or Hunter Thompson when they use the devices of the novelist to depict real events. Highly recommended reading.
October 15, 2017
Dark. Depressing. Morbid. But also fascinating and surprisingly enjoyable and well done. I personally find most books about real events in history tend to leave the reader overwhelmed with confusing facts that are hard to retain and also underwhelmed with storytelling. Gallagher's "Paddy's Lament" does a fantastic job of laying out the details of what, why and how the Irish famine happened but also gives you the gritty details about the human experience that make it digestible, relatable and understandable. I'm no scholar but if I can read a book on a certain period in history and be able to retell what happened to someone else because the way the book was written was so memorable . . . I consider it having done it's job. If Gallagher wrote other books on Irish history before and after the famine, I would happily have read them.
February 28, 2020
Being an Irish American Catholic, I knew about the forced famine and immigration, the slave labor and the coffin ships but not to this detail.
This book should be required reading in European and American History in US high schools. The imperialism of the UK and the impact on humanity cannot be ignored. The dehumanizing a people for you own benefit continues when history is not known.
This book should be required reading in European and American History in US high schools. The imperialism of the UK and the impact on humanity cannot be ignored. The dehumanizing a people for you own benefit continues when history is not known.
March 3, 2017
A must-read for anyone interested in Irish immigration to the U.S., the potato famine, and British oppression of the vast Irish peasantry (a.k.a how to be a horrid landlord). Deeply researched and sure to fascinate, regardless of whether this is your first book about Ireland or your hundredth.
October 25, 2019
Very interesting read! Especially to get context for "Say Nothing."
November 25, 2023
A heartbreaking, but important history, that is very well put together. I particularly enjoyed the author's liberal use of first-hand accounts, both of the Irish experiencing starvation, and of the shocked and disturbed visitors to the island during those years.
The author divides book into four sections: The Doomed Country, Escape, The Voyage, and Through the Golden Door.
First, the Doomed Country sets up Ireland's position in the world, and its ultimately fraudulent absorption into the British Empire just a few decades before the start of the Great Hunger. As the blight spreads, and people bring to starve, Gallagher describes plainly the policies of exporting food to England, of tenant farmers and their landlords, and the conditions these policies created in the lives of ordinary Irish.
The next section, Escape, describes how these ordinary people dealt with the confusing and debilitating bombardment of poverty, disease, and starvation while those in power continued not to take the situation in Ireland seriously.
These first two sections are positively devastating to read, even for someone like myself who is well aware of the context of the crisis that created the famine. Gallagher does an excellent job of explaining how, while the British did not engineer the potato blight, their policies did little to assuage the problems and instead exacerbated the torment, disease, and eventual death of its own citizens, as the Irish then were.
The Voyage was another brutal section, but one I had heard the least about prior to reading this book. Gallagher really humanises the experience of the voyage. In fact, he nearly describes it too well, as there are a few sections that could induce nausea in the reader. In this section, Gallagher begins personalising parts of the misery and determination through three emigrants, an addition I much appreciated.
Finally Through the Golden Door was a welcome respite in all the misery described by the previous sections. The reality of the tenements sets in, however, and you feel a different kind of sadness and affection for the new arrivals and their limited options, although you're happy they are finally off that damn ship.
One or two chapters ran on a little long for my taste, but, ultimately there is happily no shortage of details or sources in this excellent book on the subject of the Irish Famine.
The author divides book into four sections: The Doomed Country, Escape, The Voyage, and Through the Golden Door.
First, the Doomed Country sets up Ireland's position in the world, and its ultimately fraudulent absorption into the British Empire just a few decades before the start of the Great Hunger. As the blight spreads, and people bring to starve, Gallagher describes plainly the policies of exporting food to England, of tenant farmers and their landlords, and the conditions these policies created in the lives of ordinary Irish.
The next section, Escape, describes how these ordinary people dealt with the confusing and debilitating bombardment of poverty, disease, and starvation while those in power continued not to take the situation in Ireland seriously.
These first two sections are positively devastating to read, even for someone like myself who is well aware of the context of the crisis that created the famine. Gallagher does an excellent job of explaining how, while the British did not engineer the potato blight, their policies did little to assuage the problems and instead exacerbated the torment, disease, and eventual death of its own citizens, as the Irish then were.
The Voyage was another brutal section, but one I had heard the least about prior to reading this book. Gallagher really humanises the experience of the voyage. In fact, he nearly describes it too well, as there are a few sections that could induce nausea in the reader. In this section, Gallagher begins personalising parts of the misery and determination through three emigrants, an addition I much appreciated.
Finally Through the Golden Door was a welcome respite in all the misery described by the previous sections. The reality of the tenements sets in, however, and you feel a different kind of sadness and affection for the new arrivals and their limited options, although you're happy they are finally off that damn ship.
One or two chapters ran on a little long for my taste, but, ultimately there is happily no shortage of details or sources in this excellent book on the subject of the Irish Famine.
Read
January 19, 2025I read this primarily for its insight into the famine, its causes and consequences. Given its publication during the Troubles, it seems the book was intended to explain the level of hatred and resentment felt by many Irish toward the English. The author avoids the political machine as much as possible, focusing on the victims of disease and hunger on the ground. Some of the details here make the stereotypical pompousness we associate with the British to be particularly absurd given the suffering it's caused in the not-so-distant past.
The second and third sections, Escape and Voyage respectively, helped shed light on the factors driving Irish out of their own country, and the journeys ahead of them before their arrival in America. I was surprised at how truly horrific conditions were on British ships carrying Irish emigrants from Cork, Dublin and Liverpool like sardines in disease-ridden vessels with two makeshift privies that were destroyed with the first storm in voyages lasting two to three months, because of how much slower British ships were than American ones.
I sped through the last section, which discussed what life in New York City was like for those Irish who survived the voyage and had the energy to move upward, despite the obstacles in front of them. Yet, as someone who has never been to the Big Apple myself, I can only bring myself to care so much about its inner-workings, the streets covered in filth and manure, marked by shoddy tenements with door-frames so warped that their residents couldn't shut the doors to their living spaces. I was amused by the prospect of using pigs to clean up the streets because your street cleaning department is too corrupt to contemplate making your city livable for the vast majority of its population.
While I did get a taste here, I'll probably look elsewhere for another book which focuses purely on the potato blight in Ireland and Britain's pathetic response.
The second and third sections, Escape and Voyage respectively, helped shed light on the factors driving Irish out of their own country, and the journeys ahead of them before their arrival in America. I was surprised at how truly horrific conditions were on British ships carrying Irish emigrants from Cork, Dublin and Liverpool like sardines in disease-ridden vessels with two makeshift privies that were destroyed with the first storm in voyages lasting two to three months, because of how much slower British ships were than American ones.
I sped through the last section, which discussed what life in New York City was like for those Irish who survived the voyage and had the energy to move upward, despite the obstacles in front of them. Yet, as someone who has never been to the Big Apple myself, I can only bring myself to care so much about its inner-workings, the streets covered in filth and manure, marked by shoddy tenements with door-frames so warped that their residents couldn't shut the doors to their living spaces. I was amused by the prospect of using pigs to clean up the streets because your street cleaning department is too corrupt to contemplate making your city livable for the vast majority of its population.
While I did get a taste here, I'll probably look elsewhere for another book which focuses purely on the potato blight in Ireland and Britain's pathetic response.
January 29, 2023
I started reading this book more than five years ago, before my first visit to the verdant and beautiful landscape of Ireland. My desire was to better understand the background of the distrust the Irish had to the English, particularly since as an American, the history of each wasn't as clearly distinct as it was after conducting research into their longstanding conflicts.
What this narrative describes is an extraordinarily visceral understanding of just had badly things became under British rule before the Irish had to leave for America in mid-nineteenth century history. It was shocking to learn of the apathy of the British government to the plight of the Irish during the blight 0f a land that relied upon the potato as its primary source of nourishment. At one point I had to put the book down because of the unbelievable suffering, which the author describes in vivid detail, and the lack of humanity exercised by the British government to the obvious and heartbreaking suffering of its citizens in Ireland as a result of losing their primary food source. Death and starvation was rampant.
The narrative then focuses on the demeaning plight of Irish immigrants as they made their way to America in steerage, living in their own filth, unable to relieve themselves and dying of disease caused by the squalor.
Though apparently an honest account, this was one of the most difficult reads I have encountered, concerning one group of people and their attempts to move beyond their oppressive state of living. I'm very compassionate, though war-weary, having now been informed of this injustice.
Overall, an educational, though painful read of this historical record.
What this narrative describes is an extraordinarily visceral understanding of just had badly things became under British rule before the Irish had to leave for America in mid-nineteenth century history. It was shocking to learn of the apathy of the British government to the plight of the Irish during the blight 0f a land that relied upon the potato as its primary source of nourishment. At one point I had to put the book down because of the unbelievable suffering, which the author describes in vivid detail, and the lack of humanity exercised by the British government to the obvious and heartbreaking suffering of its citizens in Ireland as a result of losing their primary food source. Death and starvation was rampant.
The narrative then focuses on the demeaning plight of Irish immigrants as they made their way to America in steerage, living in their own filth, unable to relieve themselves and dying of disease caused by the squalor.
Though apparently an honest account, this was one of the most difficult reads I have encountered, concerning one group of people and their attempts to move beyond their oppressive state of living. I'm very compassionate, though war-weary, having now been informed of this injustice.
Overall, an educational, though painful read of this historical record.
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