Great Hunger: Irish Potato Famine

Leaving the country was not so simple. Where would people go? Not to any shore connected with Britain - except to board a ship. Liverpool, for example, became the starting point for long journeys on overcrowded ships.

Many people did not survive the Atlantic crossing. "Famine Ships" became "Coffin Ships." By the time the vessels arrived at Boston or New York City, they were less crowded than they had been at Liverpool.

For those who made it, however, the first night in America was better than the last night in Ireland. At least Irish families (who carried with them Celtic traditions, like Halloween) had a roof over their heads.

Still, arrival in America meant more hardship for many Irish immigrants. Most were Catholics - and Catholics weren’t always welcomed into American cities at the time. Anti-immigrant sentiment existed in 19th century America. Thomas Nast, the famous cartoonist, depicted St. Patrick’s Day of 1867 in a way that would be scandalously offensive today. Even Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, had anti-Catholic riots.

By the time the most damaging effects of the Great Hunger were over, Ireland’s population had dropped from about 8 million (at its highest-ever level in 1845) to about 5 million. It has never recovered from that mass exodus.

Fortunately, the people of Ireland and England are working out their longstanding differences. They have a lengthy history of enmity. From the death of Wolfe Tone ("Ireland’s George Washington") to the upheaval in Northern Ireland, the disputes run deep and wide. But as Tony Blair, a man with Irish in his own blood, said in 1998 (during the first-ever address by a British Prime Minister to the Irish Parliament):

As ties strengthen, so the past can be put behind us. Nowhere was this better illustrated than at the remarkable ceremony at Messines earlier this month. Representatives of nationalists and unionists travelled together to Flanders to remember shared suffering. Our army bands played together. Our heads of state stood together. With our other European neighbors, such a ceremony would be commonplace. For us it was a first. It shows how far we have come. But it also shows we still have far to go.