Boston and the Irish Famine

Boston is as Irish as it gets in America.  

The plaque that goes with this statue says:  Lest We Forget

The commemoration of The Great Hunger allows people everywhere to reflect upon a terrible episode that forever changed Ireland. The conditions that produced the Irish famine - crop failure, absentee landlordism, colonialism and weak political leadership -- still exist around the world today.  Famines continue to decimate suffering populations.  The lessons of the Irish famine need to be constantly learned and applied until history finally ceases to repeat itself.

(Unfortunately, I don't believe that mankind CAN learn from its mistakes.  We certainly haven't since the beginning of recorded time.)

Starting in 1845, a virulent fungus devastated the potato crop, depriving poor Irish families of their main source of food and subsistence*.  Ironically, as thousands of Irish starved to death, the British government then ruling Ireland callously allowed tons of grain to be exported from Ireland to pay absentee landlords their rent.  "The stranger reaps our harvest, the alien owns our soil." wrote Irish poet Lady Jane Wilde.

The grate famine which ravaged Ireland between 1845-50 was the major catastrophe of the 19th century.  It brought horrific suffering and loss to Ireland's 8.5 million people.  Over one million died of starvation and disease.  Another two million emigrated, seeking sanctuary in Boston and other North American cities.  Those remaining in Ireland suffered poverty, eviction, and the decimation of their culture.  This memorial remembers the famine, known in Irish as An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger).  It depicts the Irish exodus from their homeland, their arrival in Boston and ultimate triumph over adversity in America.  It was dedicated on June 28, 1998, as part of the 150th anniversary of The Great Hunger.


Another plaque says:  The American Dream

Despite hostility from some Bostonians and signs of NO IRISH NEED APPLY, the Famine Irish eventually transformed themselves from impoverished refugees to hard-working, successful Americans.  The leadership of Boston Irish like John Boyle O'Reilly, Patrick Collins and Richard Cardinal Cushing culminated in a descendant of the famine generation, John F. Kennedy, becoming the nation's first Irish Catholic President in 1960.  Today 44 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, leading the nation in Medal of Honor winners, and excelling in literature, sports, business, medicine and entertainment.  

I liken what the British did to the Irish to what the American government did to the Native Americans when they allowed the millions of buffalo (bison) to be slaughtered almost to extinction.  The buffalo were to Native Americans what the potato was to the Irish.  Shame on both the British government and the American government. 

However, what was, is.  The Irish came to America and "moved on."  They haven't demanded special treatment or minority status.  They just put their shoulders to the grindstone and have made successes of themselves right and left.  No namby-pamby treatment for them.  They were - and are - people of pride and strength of character.  The Native Americans also have claimed no special treatment.  They live in their nations on reservations or have assimilated into the American lifestyle.  Again, people of pride and strength of character.  I for one am proud to be a descendant of Native Americans.

*subsistence -- especially means barely sufficient to maintain life.  I always think of existence and sub-sistence.  Below the level of existing.