ABOUT THIS BOOK

Between 1845 and 1855, nearly 1.5 million Irish women, men, and children sailed to America to escape the Great Famine, triggered by successive years of potato blight. The famine and resulting emigration had a profound impact not only on the history of Ireland, but on that of England and North America as well. This volume of original essays commemorates the 150th anniversary of these epochal events and sheds new light on both the consequences of the famine and experience of the Irish in America.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

ARTHUR GRIBBEN teaches English at California State University, Northridge. RUTH-ANN M. HARRIS is adjunct professor of history and Irish studies at Boston College.

REVIEWS

“This book is a major contribution to its field. It contains important details that are missing from many of the previous works on the subject of the famine. The scholarship is sound, and is often based on primary sources that have never been examined in this context before. The data are consistently compelling, fresh, and well documented. . . . Any college with an Irish studies program will find the book indispensable.”—Mary Ellen Cohane, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

“A fascinating collection of essays that reveals, in often unexpected ways, the effects of the Irish famine on both sides of the Atlantic. Ranging from the loss of life to the loss of music among the Irish peasantry, from the pages of the Dublin University Magazine to the pages of American newspapers, from Chef Alex Soyer's famine soup to the famine graves at Grosse Ile, from Irish memory to Irish American rage, this scholarly but readable book provides us with the broadest understanding to date of this far-reaching event.”—William H. Williams, author of 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

1. Introduction
Ruth-Ann M. Harris

2. Women and the Great Famine: Vignettes from the Irish Oral Tradition
Patricia Lysaght

3. A Tory Periodical in a Time of Famine: The Dublin University Magazine, 1845-1850
Wayne Hall

4. Alexis Soyer and the Irish Famine: “Splendid Promises and Abortive Measures”
Jillian Strang and Joyce Toomre

5. The Transfer of Land and the Emergence of the Graziers during the Famine Period
David S. Jones

6. The Great Famine: A Catalyst in Irish Traditional Music Making
Gearoid O Hallmhurain

7. Grosse Ile: Canada's Famine Memorial
Michael Quigley

8. The Famine Beat: American Newspaper Coverage of the Great Hunger
Neil Hogan

9. “Revenge for Skibbereen”: Irish Emigration and the Meaning of the Great Famine
Kerby A. Miller

10. The Pauper and the Politician: A Tale of Two Immigrants and the Construction of Irish-American Society
Kerby A. Miller and Bruce D. Boling

11. The Famine and Collective Memory: The Role of the Irish-American Press in the Early Twentieth Century
Mick Mulcrone

12. The Great Irish Famine--A Dangerous Memory?
Christine Kinealy

Notes on Contributors
Index